As part of the Rendez-vous littéraires rue Cambon [Literary Rendezvous at Rue Cambon], the podcast "les Rencontres" highlights the birth of a writer in a series imagined by CHANEL and House ambassador and spokesperson Charlotte Casiraghi. 

Listen to author and critic Erica Wagner in conversation with Claire-Louise Bennett, writer of “Checkout 19”, her first novel published by Jonathan Cape in 2021. Together, they talk about her writing process and the influence of drama on the construction of her characters. They also discuss her relationship with reading and the evolution of her work since "Pond", her first collection of short stories.

(00:00) Introduction

(00:55) Presentation of Claire-Louise Bennett and her novel “Checkout 19” by Erica Wagner

(03:50) On the author’s path to becoming a writer

(09:29) On the publication process of her first and second book

(13:50) On the difficulty of writing

(16:54) The writers who inspire her

(19:31) Reading an extract of “Checkout 19” by Claire-Louise Bennett

(22:03) On reading

(23:02) On the writing process of her novel

(28:21) Her first reader

(29:44) On the reception of the book

(33:06) On writer Annie Ernaux

(35:37) The ending questionnaire of “les Rencontres”

Claire-Louise Bennett, Checkout 19, Vintage Publishing, 2022.

© The New York Times Company. All rights reserved. Used under license.

© Goldsmiths Prize.

Claire-Louise Bennett, Pond, Fitzcarraldo Editions, London, 2015. Copyright © Claire-Louise Bennett. 2015. Originally published in Ireland by The Stinging Fly Press, 2015.

© The Swansea University Dylan Thomas Prize.

© University of Roehampton.

© The White Review.

© The Stinging Fly.

© Vogue Italia.

© Frieze, tous droits réservés.

Penguin Random House.

© The Dublin Review.

Witold Gombrowicz, Diary, Translated by Lillian Vallee, © Yale University Press, 2012.

Günter Grass, 

The Tin Drum, Penguin, 2005.

E. M. Forster, A Room with a View, Penguin, 2012.

Françoise Sagan, Bonjour tristesse [1954], Julliard, 2008.

The Nobel Prize in Literature

Annie Ernaux, Getting Lost, Fitzcarraldo Editions, London, 2022. Copyright © Editions Gallimard, 2001. Translation copyright © Alison L. Strayer, 2022.

Annie Ernaux, Getting Lost, Translated by Alison L. Strayer, © Seven Stories Press, 2022.

Annie Ernaux, Simple Passion, Fitzcarraldo Editions, London, 2021. Copyright © Editions Gallimard, 1991. Translation copyright © Tanya Leslie, 1993.

Annie Ernaux, A Girl's Story, Seven Stories Press, New York, and Fitzcarraldo Editions, London, 2020. Copyright © Editions Gallimard, 2016. Translation copyright © Alison L. Strayer, 2020.

Annie Ernaux, A Girl's Story, Translated by Alison L. Strayer, © Seven Stories Press, 2020.

Jeanette Winterson, Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit, © Grove Press, 1997.

Elizabeth Smart, By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept, Penguin, 1992.