Claire-Louise Bennett

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Claire-Louise Bennett is a British writer, living in Galway in Ireland.[1] She is the author of the books Pond (2015),[2] which was shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize,[3] and Checkout 19 (2021),[4] which was shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize.[5]

Biography[edit]

Bennett grew up in a working-class family in Wiltshire, South-West England. She studied literature and drama at the University of Roehampton in London. She emigrated from the UK to Galway in Ireland around the turn of the millennium.[1]

Her debut book, Pond (2015), a collection of 20 interconnected stories, was very positively reviewed, with Andrew Gallix in The Guardian concluding: "This is a truly stunning debut, beautifully written and profoundly witty."[6] Meghan O'Rourke wrote in The New York Times: "More than anything this book ­reminded me of the kind of old-fashioned British children’s books I read growing up — books steeped in contrarianism and magic, delicious scones and inviting ponds, otherworldly yet bracingly real. ... Despite its occasional unevenness, 'Pond' makes the case for Bennett as an innovative writer of real talent."[7] According to Brian Dillon, reviewing it for the London Review of Books, "At its best, in the longer stories such as 'Lady of the House' and 'Morning, Noon & Night', Pond is all that its author admires in others: a work of gorgeous stylistic and structural ambition, deadpan comedy and profound, that is to say profoundly odd, expression."[8]

Bennett's 2021 novel, Checkout 19, was described by Leo Robson in The Guardian as an "elatingly risky and irreducible book",[9] and was characterised in the TLS by Desirée Baptiste as "really a collection of seven vignettes (essay-stories) offering glimpses of the unnamed narrator’s younger self, throughout her reading and writing life. ... Checkout 19 is utterly original, fashioned from the many narratives (books read, stories written, ideologies debunked) that have shaped a female working-class writer’s distinctive sensibility."[10] Praising Checkout 19 in The Scotsman, literary critic Stuart Kelly said: "This is one of the most extraordinary books it has been my privilege to review. ... If I were a Booker judge again, I would move heaven and earth to get this on the shortlist."[11]

Publications[edit]

Novels[edit]

  • Bennett, Claire-Louise (2021). Checkout 19. London: Jonathan Cape.[12][13]

Short fiction[edit]

Collections
Stories[b]
Title Year First published Reprinted/collected Notes
"Invisible bird" 2022 Bennett, Claire-Louise (30 May 2022). "Invisible bird". The New Yorker. Vol. 98, no. 14. pp. 54–59.

Non-fiction[edit]

  • Bennett, Claire-Louise (2020). Fish out of water. Milan: Juxta Press.

Awards[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ Paperback edition published by Fitzcarraldo, also 2015.
  2. ^ Short stories unless otherwise noted.

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b Coffey, Edel (17 August 2021). "Claire-Louise Bennett: 'Most people were being sold a bit of a lie'". The Irish Times. Retrieved 1 December 2021.
  2. ^ Tolentino, Jia (11 July 2016). "A Work of Fiction That Will Make You Feel Pleasantly Insane". The New Yorker. Retrieved 1 December 2021.
  3. ^ a b "£30k Dylan Thomas prize shortlist for young writers revealed". BBC News. 22 March 2016. Retrieved 1 December 2021.
  4. ^ Baker, Phil (15 August 2021). "Checkout 19 by Claire-Louise Bennett review — a radiant study of inner life". The Sunday Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 1 December 2021.
  5. ^ Doyle, Martin (6 October 2021). "Keith Ridgway and Claire-Louise Bennett on Goldsmiths Prize 2021 shortlist". The Irish Times. Retrieved 1 December 2021.
  6. ^ Gallix, Andrew (18 November 2015). "Pond by Claire-Louise Bennett review – a stunning debut". The Guardian.
  7. ^ O'Rourke, Meghan (22 July 2016). "A Debut Novel Traces a Woman's Life in Solitude". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 1 December 2021.
  8. ^ Dillon, Brian (19 October 2016). "Hmmmm, Stylish". London Review of Books. Vol. 38, no. 20. ISSN 0260-9592. Retrieved 1 December 2021.
  9. ^ Robson, Leo (18 August 2021). "Checkout 19 by Claire-Louise Bennett – a life in books". The Guardian. Retrieved 1 December 2021.
  10. ^ Baptiste, Desirée (17 September 2021). "One stitch at a time: The 'fearless, original sentences' of a unique writer". TLS. Retrieved 26 May 2024.
  11. ^ Kelly, Stuart (18 August 2021). "Book review: Checkout 19, by Claire-Louise Bennett". www.scotsman.com. Retrieved 1 December 2021.
  12. ^ Conway, Louie (3 September 2021). "Review: Checkout 19 by Claire-Louise Bennett". Vanity Fair. Retrieved 1 December 2021.
  13. ^ Balanescu, Miriam (19 August 2021). "Checkout 19 by Claire-Louise Bennett is a glittering debut that spins the mundane into magic". inews.co.uk. Retrieved 1 December 2021.
  14. ^ "The White Review Short Story Prize 2013". The White Review. December 2013. Retrieved 1 December 2021.
  15. ^ Flood, Alison (22 March 2016). "International Dylan Thomas prize 2016 unveils 'phenomenally talented' shortlist". The Guardian. Retrieved 1 December 2021.
  16. ^ Flood, Alison (10 November 2021). "Isabel Waidner wins Goldsmiths prize for 'mindbending' Sterling Karat Gold". The Guardian. Retrieved 1 December 2021.
  17. ^ Peirson-Hagger, Ellen (6 October 2021). "Goldsmiths Prize 2021 shortlist: The six most cutting-edge novelists writing today". New Statesman. Retrieved 1 December 2021.


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