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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...

ANDRÉ BRETON The most memorable thing about our meetings [around 1919-1920] was the almost complete bareness of the room in which Reverdy received us, usually on Sundays He lived at the top of Montmartre, rue Cortot, a stone’s throw from the rue des Saules Of the astonishing ‘climate’ that prevailed there, nothing could give a clearer picture than this remarkable description by Reverdy himself, at the opening of La Lucarne Ovale [1]:   At that time coal had become as precious and as rare as nuggets of gold, and I was writing in an attic where the snow, falling in through cracks in the ceiling, would turn blue Such force of expression has for me lost none of its beguiling charm It takes me back, instantly, to the heart of that verbal wizardry which, for us, was the preserve of Reverdy Only Aloysius Bertrand and Rimbaud had previously ventured so far down that path For my part, I loved and I love still – yes, love – this poetry that takes as its subject the vast swathes that halo everyday life, that haze of anxieties and intimations that flutter around our thoughts and actions From these he pruned as if at random, the rhythm he created appearing to be his sole tool, albeit one that never betrayed him; he was a marvel Reverdy was much more of a theorist than Apollinaire: he would even have been a master in our eyes had he been less impassioned in debate, more aware of the arguments with which we opposed him, though it is true that this passion made up a great part of his charm No one has reflected better, nor has known how to make others reflect, on the profound effects of poetry Nothing could hold greater importance later on than his ideas on poetic imagery Nor is there anybody who has shown such exemplary indifference to the ingratitude of fate   (Interviews with André Parinaud, ‘Le Point du Jour’, Gallimard, 1952)     LOUIS ARAGON A black sun has set in Solesmes When we were 20 (Soupault, Breton, Eluard and I), he embodied for us all that was pure in the world Our immediate elder, and the exemplary poet Life may well have ebbed between us, but it

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. 3

Interview with Elmgreen & Dragset

Ben Hunter

Nicholas Shorvon

Interview

Issue No. 3

Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset are among the most innovative, subversive and wickedly funny contemporary artists at work, or...

Interview

Issue No. 4

Interview with Ahdaf Soueif

Jacques Testard

Interview

Issue No. 4

In 1999, Ahdaf Soueif’s second novel, The Map of Love, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, eventually losing out...

feature

November 2015

Anatomy of a Democracy: Javier Cercas

Duncan Wheeler

feature

November 2015

20 November marks the fortieth anniversary of the death of General Franco. And while the insurrectionist’s victory in the...

 

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