Claire-Louise Bennett is a British writer, living in

Galway Galway ( ; , ) is a City status in Ireland, city in (and the county town of) County Galway. It lies on the River Corrib between Lough Corrib and Galway Bay. It is the most populous settlement in the province of Connacht, the List of settleme ...

in Ireland. She is the author of the books ''

Pond A pond is a small, still, land-based body of water formed by pooling inside a depression (geology), depression, either naturally or artificiality, artificially. A pond is smaller than a lake and there are no official criteria distinguishing ...

'' (2015), which was shortlisted for the

Dylan Thomas Prize The Dylan Thomas Prize is a leading prize for young writers presented annually. The prize, named in honour of the Welsh writer and poet Dylan Thomas, brings international prestige and a remuneration of £30,000 (~$46,000). It is open to published w ...

, and '' Checkout 19'' (2021), which was shortlisted for the

Goldsmiths Prize The Goldsmiths Prize is a British literary award, founded in 2013 by Goldsmiths, University of London, in association with the ''New Statesman.'' It is awarded annually to a British or Irish piece of fiction that "breaks the mould or extends the ...

Biography

Bennett grew up in a working-class family in

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated to Wilts) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It borders Gloucestershire to the north, Oxfordshire to the north-east, Berkshire to the east, Hampshire to the south-east, Dorset to the south, and Somerset to ...

, South-West England. She studied literature and drama at the

University of Roehampton The University of Roehampton, London, formerly Roehampton Institute of Higher Education, is a public university in the United Kingdom, situated on three major sites in Roehampton, in the London Borough of Wandsworth. The University traces its r ...

in London. She emigrated from the UK to Galway in Ireland around the turn of the millennium. Her debut book, ''

'' (2015), a collection of 20 interconnected stories, was very positively reviewed, with Andrew Gallix in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' concluding: "This is a truly stunning debut, beautifully written and profoundly witty."

Meghan O'Rourke Meghan O'Rourke (born 1976) is an American nonfiction writer, poet and critic. Background and education O'Rourke was born on January 26, 1976, in Brooklyn, New York. The eldest of the three children of Paul and Barbara O'Rourke, she had two yo ...

wrote in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'': "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." According to Brian Dillon, reviewing it for the ''

London Review of Books The ''London Review of Books'' (''LRB'') is a British literary magazine published bimonthly that features articles and essays on fiction and non-fiction subjects, which are usually structured as book reviews. History The ''London Review of Book ...

'', "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." Bennett's 2021 novel, '' Checkout 19'', was described by Leo Robson in ''The Guardian'' as an "elatingly risky and irreducible book", 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." Praising ''Checkout 19'' in ''

The Scotsman ''The Scotsman'' is a Scottish compact (newspaper), compact newspaper and daily news website headquartered in Edinburgh. First established as a radical political paper in 1817, it began daily publication in 1855 and remained a broadsheet until ...

'', 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."

Publications

Novels

Short fiction

;Collections * Paperback edition published by Fitzcarraldo, also 2015. ;StoriesShort stories unless otherwise noted.

Non-fiction

Awards

*2013: Winner, '' The White Review'' Short Story Prize for "The Lady of the House" *2016: Shortlisted,

for ''Pond'' *2021: Shortlisted,

for ''Checkout 19''

Notes

References

Living people 21st-century English women writers 21st-century English writers Alumni of the University of Roehampton The New Yorker people Writers from Wiltshire Place of birth missing (living people) Year of birth missing (living people) {{UK-writer-stub