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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...

Another Autumn Journal Chaos (AKA Do Not Put This to Music Because You’re How Fish Put Up a Fight)   I know what it means makes a great first line While you paid by credit card an alien inside burst out of a person Do not consider at least smarter song lyrics My mental health or something like my mental health said you were forlorn online The light of the screen was a poem about looking up at you in the shower while I was beginning to undress to be in the shower with you An egg just fell from the sky and cracked An usher came over to tell me to turn my smartphone off so I paused the movie we were streaming I’m thinking intensify most statements exchanged Yeah an egg just fell from the big grey sky We thought we were going to be late for the ballet I really hope Anonymous doesn’t blow his fucking brains out in the restaurant Anonymous started to sing in the way I used to like a young Benny Hill There were no celebrities present The sky was indigo when I told you I’d been atmospheric as a kid The ballet cast seemed so beautiful in the shower I mean wow Then we said we loved each other We got over this When Anonymous says he loves me I tell him I love him too except he got Anonymous pregnant sometimes My love is sometimes a small bird that’s a bomb You responded by saying that I make you feel like there is no fucking orchestra and then we told your face and mine I said ‘Is there no orchestra?’ You were like ‘Pure No’ We put the most beautiful thing down beneath you because you were menstruating The ballet was non-committal Involuntarily shit I was just staring at my smartphone in an insurmountable poem You said ‘That’s not the point I’m making You always panic when parking the car’ You want to make me sing again but not like a young Benny Hill I laughed like a loon off camera because you told me you hated that neither of us seemed phased by the cool rain, chronic depression or no chronic depression during sex

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

feature

Issue No. 15

Editorial

The Editors

feature

Issue No. 15

In The Art of the Publisher, Roberto Calasso suggests that publishing is something approaching an art form, whereby ‘all...

feature

October 2012

Film: Palestinian Airlines

Eddie Wrey

feature

October 2012

    Palestinian Airlines Produced and Directed by Eddie Wrey Co-produced and translated by Max Wrey Co-edited by Rye...

fiction

April 2012

They Told the Story from the Lighthouse

Chimene Suleyman

fiction

April 2012

I found Margate watching the sea. And I walked the streets thinking they had left it sometime in the...

 

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