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Claire-Louise Bennett
Claire-Louise Bennett grew up in Wiltshire and studied literature and drama at the University of Roehampton, before settling in Galway. Her short fiction and essays have been published in The Stinging Fly, The Penny Dreadful, The Moth, Colony, The Irish Times, The White Review and gorse. She was awarded the inaugural White Review Short Story Prize in 2013 and has received bursaries from the Arts Council and Galway City Council. Her debut novel, Pondwas published by Fitzcarraldo Editions in 2015 and shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize in 2016. Her second novel, Checkout 19, is published by Jonathan Cape in August 2021.

Articles Available Online


The Russian Man

Fiction

Issue No. 27

Claire-Louise Bennett

Fiction

Issue No. 27

Many years ago a large Russian man with the longest tendrils of the softest white hair came to live in the fastest growing town...

poetry

Issue No. 13

Morning, Noon & Night

Claire-Louise Bennett

poetry

Issue No. 13

Sometimes a banana with coffee is nice. It ought not to be too ripe – in fact there should...

ASSORTED BAKELITE STARS Placed in startlingly elegant nooks, these stars are meant to inspire and encourage the idea of ‘night’, even though residents incarcerated in the Containment Room obviously don’t deserve such nice things Statistics show that the stars most likely to go missing are puce, gently-bruised green, dirty black, orange and fuckboy pink Small and prone to breaking, these stars are incredibly easy to remove and appropriate, but that does not mean you should do it Conversely, some stars have been found on the beach with extra arms and large insect genitalia, but as these do not fall under the purview of ‘Items That Have Gone Missing’, we will not discuss them here   ONE HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS One hundred million dollars was allegedly left in the Containment Room by D Alamelu, aka Iyiyo Alamelu, during a ten-day incarceration period in 1997 A longtime resident of the institute and avid Kho Kho player, D Alamelu was also a notorious extortionist, who wandered the hopelessly unsafe halls with wads of foreign currency peering out from the top of her sari blouse She was attacked twice by people she knew, who took her money, beat her with a field hockey stick, and explained that this was what happened to young women who walked alone in hopelessly unsafe halls D Alamelu asked if the wads of cash made everything worse, and they said yes, because it was the truth Both times, they left her with a broken jaw, a black eye, a fractured wrist and the field hockey stick  It was only much later that she would allegedly leave one hundred million dollars somewhere on the beach of the Containment Room By then, her jaw and wrist would be completely useless And while she could still see potentially dangerous things from far away, her eye kept leaking something that smelled like a dead lizard   RECTANGULAR PORTIONS OF MATTRESSES These mattresses, crafted by local artisans and installed by a nameless global corporation, encourage the idea of  ‘beach’ in such an effective manner that they

Contributor

August 2014

Claire-Louise Bennett

Contributor

August 2014

Claire-Louise Bennett grew up in Wiltshire and studied literature and drama at the University of Roehampton, before settling in...

The Lady of the House

fiction

Issue No. 8

Claire-Louise Bennett

fiction

Issue No. 8

Wow it’s so still. Isn’t it eerie. Oh yes. So calm. Everything’s still. That’s right. Look at the rowers – look at how fast...

READ NEXT

Interview

Issue No. 10

Interview with Jacques Rancière

Rye Dag Holmboe

Interview

Issue No. 10

Jacques Rancière came into prominence in 1968 when, under the auspices of his teacher Louis Althusser, he contributed to...

poetry

January 2012

Tynemouth Lodge

W. N. Herbert

poetry

January 2012

‘Sometimes I go to the tavern and get drunk.          What of it?’                                 Nesimi 1 Bars tend us...

Interview

March 2017

Interview with Lidija Dimkovska

Sara Nović

Interview

March 2017

I met Lidija Dimkovska at the Twin Cities Book Festival in October, fleetingly, and completely by accident. I had...

 

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