“Identify what is weird about what you’re doing, what is weird about you. And then really get into that.” Writer Claire-Louise Bennett shares her advice for emerging writers.

“There is a pressure. You have to earn money as quickly as possible now unless you’re from a privileged background, right?” When Claire-Louise Bennett first started writing, she moved from Britain to Ireland, which – at the time – was a lot more affordable and gave her the freedom to dive into her work. But that, of course, didn’t solve all of the problems you face as a writer: “I remember feeling really down about it and that I was never going to get anywhere and all this kind of thing,” she says. “The thing I remember saying to myself was: whatever is weird about you and weird about your way of seeing things and doing things is probably the thing you should be doing. But you have to do it more.”

Claire-Louise Bennett is a British writer living in Galway, Ireland. She has written Pond, which was shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize, and Checkout 19, which was shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize. Bennett studied literature and drama at the University of Roehampton before moving to Ireland, where she worked in and studied theatre for several years. In 2013, she was awarded the inaugural White Review Short Story Prize. Claire-Louise Bennett’s fiction and essays have appeared in several publications, including The White Review, The Stinging Fly, gorse, Harper’s Magazine, Vogue Italia, and The New York Times magazine. She also writes about art and is a frequent contributor to frieze.

Claire-Louise Bennett was interviewed by writer Caroline Albertine Minor at the Louisiana Literature festival at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark, in August 2022.

Camera: Simon Wehye
Edited and produced by Roxanne Bagheshirin Lærkesen

Copyright: Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2023
Louisiana Channel is supported by Den A.P. Møllerske Støttefond, Ny Carlsbergfondet, C.L. Davids Fond og Samling and Fritz Hansen.

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