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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...

I am standing in front of a room full of people reading out a story The room is dark I am wearing a head torch so I can read the story My hands are shaking The story is about me getting drunk and having sex with a person A lot of people in the room know about me getting drunk and having sex with a person I did not know the name of the person I had sex with   After I have read the story I wander round the room and don’t know what to say I have already said over a thousand words in a row Sometimes when I approach a group of people one of them will say something positive and either clasp my arm briefly or touch the upper section of my arm I am approaching as many groups of people as possible so I get the highest number of positive things said to me I am feeling happy This is partly because I have been told a lot of positive things but also because I have drunk around five bottles of beer The number of people in the room is decreasing The amount of beer in the room has already decreased to zero This is worrying as the two main things I want are alcohol and people   There is a person I want a lot standing and talking about some objects I arranged on and near a wall I think that I should go and talk to the person If I crashed into the person while we were both in cars I would definitely talk to the person about the arrangement of solid waves in the shell of their vehicle, perhaps implying that they should permit the serendipitous beauty of the incident to assuage their feelings I go to talk to the person The person did not see me say over a thousand words in a row so I feel like they are less likely to object to me talking to them The person does not know that I arranged the objects on the wall but expresses

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. 11

Interview with Alice Oswald

Max Porter

Interview

Issue No. 11

Alice Oswald is a British poet who lives in Devon with her family. Newspaper profiles will inevitably mention the...

poetry

June 2012

At Night the Wife Makes Her Point: Two Poems

Gioconda Belli

TR. Charles Castaldi

poetry

June 2012

AT NIGHT, THE WIFE MAKES HER POINT   No. I don’t have Cindy Crawford’s legs. I haven’t spent my...

poetry

September 2016

Two Poems

Sun Yung Shin

poetry

September 2016

  Autoclonography   for performance   In 1998, scientists in South Korea claimed to have successfully cloned a human...

 

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