2013
may
My flash story, There Was No Boat,
will be published in Tin House's online as part
of their Flash Fiction Fridays on Friday June
14th, and my short short fiction, Also
Tends, has been accepted for publication
in The View From Here. My short story, Her
Dirt, is reprinted in the excellent
Swansea Review.
april
Kerri Shadid says of My Mother
Was An Upright Piano in her review in the
May 2013 issue of World Literature Today: "Her
presentation of the tragedy and the oddity of
our human lives is the typed equivalent of a
performance artist at MOMA: strange, unfamiliar,
captivating..." Read
the full review here>>
Martin Macaulay reviews
My Mother Was An Upright Piano at
Sabotage Reviews, where my book is shortlisted
for their Saboteur awards. He says: " It’s a
solid, unbreakable and inspiring collection.
Hershman creates worlds with depth and heart." Read
the full review >>
I am interviewed in the excellent new journal of
author interviews, the Delphi
Quarterly, whose editor, Ramola D, asked
wonderful questions I'd never been asked before.
A taster:
"Q: Your range sweeps as much across
art, artists, ordinary people caught at
credibly strange moments in their lives and
relationships as across science, scientists,
and science fiction—how do you choose your
subjects, or does subject choose you?
TH: A bit of both. I studied Math and
Physics at undergraduate level but knew fairly
quickly I was not cut out for a life in
science, so became a science journalist, but
my first love was always fiction..."
Read
the rest of the interview here >>
I have two poems in the new issue of Obsessed
with Pipework, and a prose poem has just
been accepted for Issue 2 of Butcher's Dog,
to be published in September.
A nice start to the month - My Mother Was
An Upright Piano is shortlisted for
Sabotage's Saboteur awards for Best Indie Lit
(Story Collection category.)! It's decided by
public vote, more information here.
march
More good news: my flash story, At Didcot
Parkway, is 3rd prize winner in the New
Writer's microfiction award and will be
published by them.
I'm thrilled that my flash story, A Call to
Arms, is the winner of the Fiction
Desk's inaugural flash fiction contest and
will be published in their forthcoming
anthology. And my flash story, A Song for
Falling, has won 3rd prize in the 2013
Salt Flash Fiction Competition and will be
published in the prize anthology.
february
My short story, The House of
Meat, is a finalist in the 2012 Words
With Jam short story competition, and will be
published in their prize anthology.
I am honoured to be the final judge of the
Writers & Artists Yearbook short story
competition - deadline Feb 15th. More
here >>
january
I have two poems ("1" and "2") in the
new issue of UK poetry journal Tears
in the Fence (print). And I am
interviewed over at Booktrust
all about short stories, writing etc..
Booking is also now open for the
Science & Writing Arvon Foundation course I
am co-tutoring (together with the fabulous Simon
Ings, with guest Heidi Williamson) in Devon in
August. More
information here >>>
I'm delighted to have a poem, Me and Elvis
Presley on Dartmoor, longlisted for the 2013
Gregory O'Donoghue poetry contest!
Congratulations to all the winners!
Booking is now open for 2 events I am involved
in in London over the next few months:
- I am in conversation with renowned
American short story writer Edith Pearlman at
Jewish Book Week, King's Place, London, feb
27th. Book
tickets here>> And as a lead up to
the event, Deborah Brooks reviews Edith's
amazing book of new and collected stories, Binocular
Vision ("Early into the reading of the
book it is clear that all of the stories are of
the highest quality.") and My Mother Was An
Upright Piano ("These too are stories that
will stand rereading as obvious thought has gone
into each word and thus every sentence deserves
to be savoured.") in the new issue of Jewish
Renaissance magazine.
-
I am running a one-day short story masterclass
entitled "Breathing from Containment" for Spread
the Word in London, Sunday April 7th. Come join
us! Book
a place here>>
A nice way to start the year: I am delighted
that my collection is reviewed in the latest
issue of Flash: The International Short Story
Story magazine, in the excellent company of Nick
Parker's The Exploding Boy, the Flash
Fiction Day anthology Jawbreakers (in
which my story Stopwatching gets a
kind mention) and collections by Etgar Keret and
Jon McGregor's. In her review of My
Mother Was An Upright Piano Louisa
Yates says: "A worthy successor to her
2008 debut... MMWAUP is at its strongest when
dealing with matter, whether it takes the form
of Google hits, neutrinos or moth's wings... As
an assemblage of particles and people,
Hershman's latest collection is a refreshing
take on the brief meetings, one-off connections
and partial viewpoints that are so often the
subject of very short fictions."
december
I'm interviewed today in Litro,
answering questions like "Describe the first
time you realised the world may not be as it
seems". Very intriguing Q&A! Read the
interview here
and share your thoughts. And my new
science-inspired short story, Empty But For
Darwin, has been accepted for publication
in the May 2013 issue of World Literature Today.
I have special Holiday Offer
over on my blog, involving my new book, a
fountain pen and some stamps >>>
In her review of My
Mother Was An Upright Piano in Necessary
Fiction Michelle Bailat-Jones
says: "The diversity of subject on offer
in the collection is brilliant, but what really
impresses is how Hershman succeeds in
establishing longer, more complicated narratives
within each short piece. These aren’t incomplete
excerpts; the reader doesn’t want or need any of
these fictions to go on longer or somehow become
another form entirely. But again and again, out
of a very short piece, a fuller story blooms."
Read her full review here.
november
My story In
Triplicate, first published in
Metazen, has won the Microfiction category of
the 2012 Hawthorne Citation short story awards.
I'm thrilled and honoured that the Nov 16th
edition of the Times Literary Supplement
includes a review of my book, by Hal Jensen, who
says: "Hershman's quirky observations, often
funny, focus on small-scale human oddities,
anxieties and misunderstandings... This informal
style seems intended to capture - as Shelley
said we never could - the moment when the fading
coal of the imagination is awakened to
transitory brightness." You can see the full
review on my
blog.
I have a brand new short story, The Special
Advisor, in the new issue, 25b, of Five
Dials, you can read
it online here. And a brand-new flash
story in the Winter 2012/13 issue of print
magazine Stinging
Fly!
In her review of My
Mother Was An Upright Piano in The
Bookbag, Ani Johnson says: " It's said
that the art of short-story writing is totally
different from that of novels as the writer only
has ten or so pages to accomplish what others do
in two to three hundred. Imagine, therefore,
telling an entire story in prose conveying depth
and meaning in fewer words than this review. It
may be difficult but, apparently, not downright
impossible as Tania Hershman has nailed it with
honours". Read her full five star review here.
I'm delighted to have a new short short story in
the Overheard:
Stories to Read Aloud anthology, published
this week in honour of National Short Story Week
2012, in the extremely venerable company of
Salman Rushdie, Hanif Kureishi, Ian McEwan,
Blake Morrison, Louis De Bernières and Vanessa
Gebbie!
Nov 9th The episode
of The
Verb that was recorded last Saturday night
- and on which i read two brand new flash
stories on the subject of editing - was
broadcast tonight on Radio 3 and is now
available online on iPlayer
for 7 days afterwards.
I will be on BBC Radio 3's
the Verb
on Saturday November 3rd to read two newly-
commissioned flash stories on the subject of
editing stories. The program will be streamed
live from the BBC's Freethinking Festival
and broadcast on Radio 3 on Friday Nov
9th. Find out more here.
october
My story The
Painter and the Physicist, first
published in Liars League,
is to be included in an anthology published
by Arachne Press.
My brand new story, Flight,
is included in the new and international edition
of New Zealand magazine Flash Frontier.
I'm delighted to have been invited onto BBC Radio
3's the Verb again to read two newly-commissioned
flash stories. The program will be recorded on Nov
3rd at the BBC's Freethinking Festival
for broadcast at a later date.
My short story, Life Burst Out, has been
republished in Necessary Fiction.
I have had two poems accepted for the Spring 2013
issue of the wonderfully-titled journal Obsessed
with Pipework and a flash story, Flight, accepted
for the international edition of Flash Frontier.
In her review of My Mother Was An
Upright Piano in the new issue (No.
80) of the Frogmore Papers, Alexandra
Loske says: " It seems that Hershman has achieved
two things here: She has perfected the art of the
very short short story, making it appear utterly
appealing and perhaps one of the most appropriate
forms of creative writing of our age. She has also
managed to form a bridge between poetry and prose.
At times it feels as if one is reading a very well
constructed, witty, moving long poem, without the
boring bits. Excellent."
My short short story Manoeuvres is published in
the new echapbook "Found" anthology of short
fiction and poetry from Wordrunner.
september
I'm
thrilled with two new reviews of My Mother Was An
Upright Piano: On the Thresholds
Short Story Forum, Vicki Heath writes: "every word
is perfectly placed as she explores the offbeat
world we live in." Read the full review here.
And Jon Pinnock calls MMWAUP " the work of a
grown-up writer who has gained the confidence to
let her muse off the leash and to follow it
wherever it goes, however unexpected that turns
out to be. " Read his review here.
I am one of the writers interview by Emily Cleaver
for the Litro Lab podcast on Flash fiction - listen here!
You can listen again to me on the
Steve Yabsley show on BBC Radio Bristol until next
Friday (Sept 21st), chatting about short stories!
I arrive 32 minutes in.
My short story The
Special Advisor, has been accepted for
publication in Five Dials magazine's special issue
(Part II) for the Cork International Short Story
Festival.
My flash story Manoeuvres
is going to be published in the Wordrunner
e-chapbook, to be published in late September.
My poem, Dreams
of a Tea Seller, has made the shortlist
of the Bridport Prize.
Three of the fictions from My Mother Was An
Upright Piano: Fictions
are featured on the excellent book review site bookoxygen,
which describes the book as "56 short, strange
fictions which arrive out of left field, bringing
warmth, wit and a deliciously off-beat
perspective." Read them here.
Booking is now open for Unputdownable, the fabulous
Bristol Festival of Literature, from Oct 13-21st,
at which I will, uncharacteristically but
thrillingly, be interviewing novelist James Long
about his long-awaited sequel to his novel Ferney, and,
more characteristically, be reading some of my
fictions and taking part in the final night
Unputdownable Speakeasy, alongside excellent
writers Nikesh Shukla, Valerie O’Riordan, Sanjida
O’Connell, Miles Chambers & Maria McCann.
Two new poems have just been accepted for
publication in the winter issue of Tears
in the Fence.
The programme for the Plymouth International Book
Festival at which I will be reading and chatting
about short stories on Monday Sept 17th, is now
available here:
august
My flash story, The
Perfect Egg, which was first published in
Nature Futures, has been chosen for the Take Tea With Turing e-anthology
commemorating the life and legacy of Alan Turing.
The anthology will be published in late October,
more information soon.
I'm interviewed over at Negative Press about my new
short story, Switchgirls,
forthcoming in the Negative Press
anthology, STILL, of short stories inspired by the
wonderful photographs of Roelof Bakker.
My story Under The Tree has just
been published in Electric Velocipede.
Two new reviews of My Mother Was An Upright Piano
on Goodreads:
Berit Ellingsen says: "there is no doubt that
Hershman is an expert of the very short story.
The themes in the collection are nicely cohesive
and the voice and narrative structure well
varied. I’ve had the pleasure of reading many of
these stories in their individual publication,
but reading them all together for a full
impression of the author’s warm voice and deft
descriptions, was even better." Read
the full review.
And Roxane Gay says "The
stories that were great ... were truly great.
I particularly liked how she was able to warp
reality and time in different ways. Hershman
is not lacking in imagination and this is
definitely a book worth reading." Read the full
review.
I
am interviewed by Dan Powell as part of his My Life In Short Fiction series,
where I tried to answer some of the hardest
short-story-related questions I've been asked!
In Bookmunch,
Ebba Brooks calls My Mother Was An
Upright Piano: Fictions:
"experimental yet accessible...strong and assured
writing, which demands your attention. No skimming
or scanning here: but even the most time starved
potential reader can and should be able to spare
three minutes to give undivided attention to one
of these." Read the full review.
Booking is now open for the flash fiction workshop
I am giving for Writing Events Bath on October
11th, 6.30pm-8.30pm, at the delicious Mr B's
Emporiom bookshop. Places are limited! Find out more >>>
I'm interviewed over at Cyprus Well as their August
feature - and giving away a copy of My
Mother Was An Upright Piano to a lucky
reader in the south-west of England!
july
I'm interviewed over at
Nuala Ni Chonchuir's excellent blog, Women Rule Writer - where
I'm answering the Short Review author
questionnaire I've subjected authors to for almost
5 years but never answered myself!
The speech I gave at the Bristol Short Story Prize
awards ceremony about why I love short stories
(and mentioned physics) is now on their website.
I'm going to be a guest this Friday, the July
13th, on the excellent BBC Radio 3 show The Verb, reading a
specially-commissioned, Higgs-boson-inspired short
short story! PS You can listen to the show online
here til July 20th.
Tune in to BCFM 93.2FM's Love & Science show on
Monday July 9th at 5pm to hear me chat with
Malcolm Love about science, fiction, and being
writer-in-residence in the Science Faculty. It is
now available as
a podcast.
june
In honour of International
Short Story Day, I'm delighted to announce that My Mother Was An
Upright Piano: Fictions is now available
as an ebook in addition to the paperback. Find out
how to download it here
>>
And you can hear me read a short story I
love and chat to Steve Wasserman about it on Read Me Something You Love.
Booking is now open for the Plymouth
International Book Festival, find out details
about my event on Sept 17th here.
I am interviewed over on the blog of the Hambidge
Center for the Creative Arts & Sciences, where
I just spent 2 weeks on retreat.
Watch me in my writing shed reading one of the
fictions from my new collection as the first Tales
From My Shed video!
may
I'm taking part in a panel discussion entitled "Short Story Big Picture" at
the Free Word centre on May 29th organised by
Spread the Word, together with Di Speirs of the
BBC, Ted Hodginkson of Granta and Helen
Garnon-Williams of Blomsbury, moderated by Aasiyah
Lodhi.
I am over at Flash Fiction Chronicles
talking about... yes, flash fiction! And I am
reading tonight (May 27th) at Stroud Stories.
The "Reality Check" set of three science-inspired
flash stories I wrote and read on Radio 4 in April
are now available as a downloadable audiobook on Audigo (US) for the
discounted price of $1.49 and Audigo (UK) for £1.24! And
in more audio news, I am interviewed in the latest
LabLit
podcast.
May16th: It's National Flash Fiction Day! Check
out what it's all about on my blog. And come along to
the Albion Beatnik Bookstore in Oxford tonight for
the flash fiction slam!
My new book has received its first official
mention, in Steve Wasserman's excellent article
exploring flash fiction on the Thresholds short story forum.
May 3rd: It's publication day! My Mother Was An
Upright Piano: Fictions is
offically published! Find out more about the book
here
- and watch the book trailer. Also,
there are still some
of the 30 signed and number limited editions with
an extra handwritten story avilable!
Two new interviews with me
have just been published, on The View From Here magazine,
where I talk about short stories, and Christopher
Allen's I Must Be Off blog about
ex-pats, where I talk about being an ex-ex-pat...
Tickets are now on sale for the West Meon Festival of Books
from 6th-8th Julyat which I am taking part in
an event on writing short stories, on Sunday
8th July at 10.30am (yes, in the morning!).
It'll be worth getting up for.
april
Booking is now open for the workshops at
the Cork
International
Short Story Festival
in Cork in September,
including the set of 4 flash fiction workshops
I am running. Places limited. Download
the
brochure.
You
can listen to the BBC
Radio 4 Afternoon reading programme
of me reading 3 new science-inspired flash
fictions at the recent More Than Words Festival
in Bristol, online til Friday 20th April.
My Mother Was An Upright Piano: Fictions, my
new short story collection, is now available for
pre-order direct from Tangent Books... as well
as a special limited edition of 30 numbered
copies, each with a brand new short short
fiction handwritten by me inside! Order the
limited edition
here.
Friday April 13th's BBC Radio 4 Afternoon
reading programme - at
3.45pm UK time - is a recording of me reading 3
new science-inspired flash fictions at the
recent More Than Words Festival in Bristol. It
will be available through Listen Again for 7
days afterwards.
I am currently a Bright
Ideas fellow
at the Genomics Forum, Edinburgh.
Booking is now open for:
New
Writing South's Art and Science Flash Story
Gym in Brighton on
April 21st, taught by Vanessa Gebbie, on which I
am the special guest. Places are limited!
More information here.
and for the May 29th
panel discussion
on short stories organised by Spread the Word, London,
on which I'll be appearing along with Helen
Garnons-Williams (Editorial Director for
Fiction, Bloomsbury Publishing) Ted
Hodgkinson (Online Editor, Granta) Aasiya
Lodhi (Producer, BBC Radio) and Di Speirs
(Editor, Readings, BBC Radio 4) .
march
I'm delighted that my
forthcoming
collection, My
Mother Was An Upright Piano: Fictions, has
been longlisted for the 2012 Frank O'Connor
International Short Story Award!
March 17th I
am performing three commissioned stories at the
Radio 4 More Than Words Festival,
St Georges, Bristol and the recording will be broadcast on the
Afternoon Reading on Radio 4 on Friday April
13th, 3.45pm
Booking
is now open for: New Writing South's
Art and Science Flash Story Gym
in Brighton on April 21st, taught by
Vanessa Gebbie, on which I am the special
guest. Places are limited! More information
here.
I'm
delighted to have been invited to run four flash
fiction workshops at the always-excellent Cork International Short Story
Festival in Cork, Ireland, from Sept 19th-22nd,
and also reading from my new collection.
A short story
of mine has been shortlisted for the Canadian Whispered Words contest. Winner announced
March 17th.
March 6th:
I'm running seminar on science-inspired
fiction, Northern Arts and Science
Network, Leeds
february
I've interviewed myself
over at r.k.vr.y
magazine's blog. The results are quite odd.
My
tiny story, 48 Dogs,
is published in Metazen.
Booking
is now open for:
1. Subtext: Black Market Tale
Traders Purim event, "Purim as you've
never experienced it before"!, on March 8th in
London, for which I've written a special
Purim-inspired short story.
2. Radio 4's More Than Words
Festival, St Georges,
Bristol, over the weekend of March 17th, at
which I will be performing three
commissioned stories-with-sound.
3. New Writing South's Art and
Science Flash Story Gym in
Brighton on April 21st, taught by Vanessa Gebbie,
on which I am the special guest. Places are
limited.
My very short short, The Tragedy of
Tragic Men, which was a finalist in the
2011 PANK 1001 Awesome Words contest, has just
been published in the February issue of PANK. Read
it here.
I'm
delighted
that
my short short story, The Beam Line, is the
winner of Diamond Light Reading's
synchrotron-inspired flash fiction competition,
and will be published in the winners' anthology! You
can read the story here.
My story Into The Waiting Arms of God has
been shortlisted for the Unbound Press/Spilling
Ink Flash Fiction contest.
january
I'm thrilled to announce
that my second collection, My
Mother Was An Upright Piano: Fictions,
will be published in Spring 2012 by Tangent Books!
I'm delighted that my poem, Dreams
of a Tea Seller, has been commended in
the Gregory O'Donoghue International
Poetry Competition.
I am interviewed at Winning Words which has
chosen The
White Road and Other Stories as its first
book club pick.
2011
december
My short short, Dissolving,
is published in r.kv.r.y's Winter issue.
Metazen has nominated my flash fiction,
The Watch My
Father Wanted, for the Micro award,
alongside Marcus Speh's excellent Swingers.
More information here.
My science-inspired story, Experimentation,
is published in the December 24th issue of New
Scientist, available worldwide. It
is also published on the New Scientist blog.
I am currently doing a
mini-writing-residency running a creative writing
workshop for asylum seekers at Bristol Refugee Rights, as
part of English
PEN's Big Writing for a Small World project.
I am delighted to have been invited to participate
in the Poets
versus Proseurs event at the Not The Oxford Literary festival
in March 2012. More details soon.
My flash story, The
beam line, is one of those in the running
for the Diamond Light Reading flash fiction
competition. Read the entries and vote for your
favourite here.
My flash story, Burrowing Blind, is
published on Metazen.
I have been chosen as one of the Edinburgh-based
Genomics Forum's Bright Ideas Fellows for
2012 and will be writer-in-residence there in
April.
My short short story, Dissolving, has been accepted
for publication in r.kv.r.y magazine in January.
november
I'm delighted that my short
short, The
Tragedy of Tragic Men, has been
shortlisted for PANK magazine's 1001 Awesome Words
contest, (my third shortlisting in this contest in
three years) and will be published in Feb 2012.
The video interview I did is now up at Ink Tears. I'm talking about
short stories, reading, writing, the perfect short
story etc...
I'm thrilled to announce that my science-inspired
story, Experimentation,
will be published in the December 24th issue of
New Scientist!
My flash story Move Quickly Now has just
been published in Beat The Dust.
I am this month's Cyprus Well South West
writer in profile, read the interview
here.
october
Tickets are now available for the "Joy of
Short Stories" event I am doing with the
wonderful Mike Manson
at Emersons Green library on Nov 9th in
celebration of National Short Story Week!
Booking is also open for the two flash fiction
workshops I am running together with Vanessa Gebbie, Bridport
Open Book Festival
on Fri 25th Nov and Sat 26th Nov.
Click on the dates for more information - and come
along to either, or both!
I am chatting about my thoughts on short stories
and flash fiction over at Ink Tears.
My prose poem, Like
Owls, is included in the new issue of
Specs Journal, which is available in print only.
But you can see a video of me reading the poem here!
I am by Tim at the LitRefs blog about fiction,
science, science fiction etc...
My
very
short story All Activity is Silent has just
been published in kill author.
september
My flash story, The
Watch My Father Wanted, has just
been published in Metazen, Timeless
is in the latest issue of .Cent
magazine (page 13) and Waving
on the Moon is in the Fall issue of A
capella Zoo. My
short poem, Moss, is in the
current issue of Alba.
Ramola D, a fantastic short story writer,
interviewed me, Robin Black and Liam Callahan
about the notion of authors building a "literary
platform" over at the Los Angeles Review, an
interesting topic.
I'm the September guest editor over at National Short Story Week,
talking about some recent collections I love and
what's coming up this month for short stories.
I'm delighted to be reading
as part of the launch of 2012 Bristol Short
Story prize at Foyles Bristol, October 18th
6.15pm-7.30pm. More
details here.
august
I'm talking about Noticing in a guest blog
post over at Flash Fiction Chronicles.
My story, All Activity is Silent, has been
accepted for Issue 15 of Kill Author, to be
published in October.
My story, Colours Shift and Fade, which
was first published several years ago in the
Vestal Review, will be included in the Frogmore
Press' "Languages of Colour" anthology.
I'm delighted that my flash story, Her
Dirt, which was inspired by the
'Dirt' exhibition (on til Aug 31st) at the
Wellcome Collection - a fantastic institution
"exploring the connections between medicine, life
and art" - is published on the Wellcome
Collection
blog,
the first time the blog has featured flash
fiction!
july
BREAKING NEWS: The BBC, which
calls itself "the world's leading broadcaster of
short stories and a staunch and long-time
supporter of the form" is cutting the Afternoon reading
programme, their premier showcase for short
stories, to once a week. Read more here and have your say.
ShortStoryVille,
the Bristol Short Story Prize's one day
extravaganza is happening on July 16th at the
Arnolfini, Bristol! Check it out. I am chairing a
discussion on reading short stories, you can book
tickets here.
june
My Story, We
Watched Him On Our Screens, inspired by a
photograph, has been turned into a
typograph and is part of the Photo Stories exhibition at
the Saatchi Gallery in London. Typographs are also
for sale. More information here.
Litmus,
Comma Press' "Short Stories from Modern Science"
anthology, which includes my specially-comissioned
story, We Are
All Made of Protein But Some of Us Glow More
Than Others, is now available. Click here for more information.
My story In Memoriam,
has received an Honorable Mention in The
Binnacle's Eighth Ultra-Short Story Competition
and will be published in the Ultra-Short
issue. My story, Disease Relics, is published in
Issue 1 of Australian magazine
Inky Squib.
I am interviewed by Jen Campbell over on her
excellent blog.
may
I am quoted in a wonderful
article in London's Evening Standard on flash
fiction, "Twitter inspires a flash of genius".
The line-up has just been announced for ShortStoryVille,
the Bristol Short Story Prize's one day
extravaganza on July 16th at the Arnolfini,
Bristol! Check it out. I am chairing a discussion
on reading short stories, you can book tickets here.
16-21 May 2011 I am a tutor, Arvon
Foundation short story course, together with
Sarah Salway.
Litmus,
Comma Press' "Short Stories from Modern Science"
anthology, which includes my specially-comissioned
story, We Are
All Made of Protein But Some of Us Glow More
Than Others, will be published on June
2nd. Click here for more information.
I am interviewed by the excellent Shortfire Press about short
stories and writing. My flash story, Vegetable Mineral, has
been included in Wigleaf's
2011 longlist
of Top 50 Very Short Fictions .
My story Waving on the Moon
has been accepted for publication in A capella
Zoo's next issue.
april
15th: 2 new stories
published today! In Triplicate,
in Metazen, and Tiny Unborn Fish in
Litro's Science issue
Unfortunately,
due
to illness, I have had to cancel my participation
in the short story event at the
Cambridge Wordfest. It will be great, please do go
if you are in the area!
My
new science-inspired short story, Tiny Unborn Fish,
is published in the Science-themed issue of Litro.
I have added a
new Inspired
By...
page to my website, with some fabulous videos
are inspired by my short stories. Do have a
look...
I was recently
interviewed for a UK government careers website,
Creative Choices, for "careers in the creative
and cultural industries". The article is here.
march
I am the guest reader
for an Arvon Foundation schools course for
pupils from my old school, South Hampstead High,
taught by the wonderful Naomi Alderman and Frances Leviston.
My
flash story Retreating I Retreated is
published in Metazen.
My
story That Small Small Inch,
which was a runner-up in PANK
Magazine's 1,001 Awesome Words
contest, is published in their March issue.
My story Maneouvres is a semifinalist in
the Vestal Review Ten Years in Flash
Fiction contest, judged by Steve Almond.
Winner announced March 31st.
March
16th I'm reading at the Wise Words Festival, 6.30pm,
Spitalfields, London, along with Jay Merill, Sarah
Salway, Elizabeth Baines, Catherine Smith and
Susannah Rickards.
My short story, Graveside, has been
published on Necessary Fiction, my second "Mary
Margaret" story. And two flash stories, Retreating
I Retreated and In
Triplicate, have been accepted by
Metazen, and a prose poem, Like
Owls, by Specs.
A
little advance notice: I am chairing a Salt
Publishing session on short stories with wonderful
Salt authors Vanessa Gebbie and Andre Mangeot at Cambridge
WordFest. Book tickets here.
I am thrilled that The White Road and
Other Stories is included on a list of "10
collections to celebrate the strength of British
short story writers" compiled by Booktrust!
My lab-inspired flash story, Tiny
Unborn Fish, has been accepted for the
science-themed issue of the excellent London
literary magazine, Litro.
february
I
am running a flash fiction workshop at Jewish
Book Week on the 28th. Click here
for more details.
I did a live
Q&A tonight (Feb 17th) on the excellent Thresholds Short Story Forum, pop in between
7.30pm-9pm, UK time, and you can read all the
excellent questions and my answers here.
My short story
Graveside
has been accepted for the March Irish-themed
issue of Necessary Fiction. It's a first for me:
the first time I've had a story published which
features a character I have written about
before, in this instance Mary Margaret, who was
the main character in my story Drinking Vodka in the Afternoon, broadcast on BBC
Radio 4 in 2007 and 3rd prize winner in the 2008
Momaya Press short story competition.
january
I have had a poem accepted
for the next issue of Alba, A Journal of Short
Poetry.
I have been asked to take part in an event at the
Wise Words festival in London on March 16th at
6.30pm, reading with such fabulous writers as Jay
Merill, Elizabeth Baines, Sarah Salway, Susannah
Rickards and Catherine Smith. More details here.
My short story, the
Perfect Egg, is published in the 13 Jan
issue of Nature. Read it here or download the PDF.
My
first publication of the new year - a short
story inspired by the discovery of Green
Fluorescent Protein, We Are All Made of Protein But Some
of Us Glow More Than Others,
written as part of Comma Press' Eureka project.
And, carrying on in the science-related vein, I
have reviewed a collection of "laboratory fairy
tales" for LabLit.
Also, booking is now open for Jewish Book Week
and I will be running a flash fiction workshop
there on Feb 28th, more details here.
2010
december
I have
created a new section on my short
stories
page for my science-inspired fiction that's
available online. Do check it out.
The British Society for Cell
Biology's Science Writing Competition which
I am honoured to be judging this year has extended
the deadline to 31st january, so still time
to get your entries in!
november
The White Road and
Other Stories has received a very nice
review in Flash magazine (print
only).
Come celebrate
the short story!
I'm hosting an event in Bristol on Wed
24th, a celebration of the short story with
readings by 12 local authors in honour of
National Short Story Week! It will be in
Blackwell's book shop, see here
for more details. And then I will be taking part
in the Future of Science event at
the Dana Centre, London, the next day, Thursday
25th.
I have been awarded a fellowship to the
Hawthornden Castle writers' retreat for next
summer.
I took part in the launch of the ShedFest
anthology, raising money for the Pakistan Flood
Appeal. Buy one here.
My story That
Small Small Inch
has been shortlisted for PANK Magazine's 2011
1,001 Awesome Words contest and will be
published in March 2011.
october
My
story, The Family
is published in Metazen.
You can hear
me reading my story, Vegetable Mineral, in the new issue
of the excellent audio magazine 4'33". My
prose poem, A Scar Sits Above My Heart, is published by
the Prose Poem Project
september
My
flash story, The
Family, has been accepted for
publication by Metazen, and my prose poem, A Scar Sits Above
My Heart, for the Winter issue of the
Prose Poem Project.
I had a wonderful time at the Frank O'Connor
Short Story Festival in Cork, ireland! I did a
reading of several new flash stories and my
"Irish" story, Drinking Vodka in the Afternoon,
read flash fiction in support of Irish support
of the arts, appeared on a panel discussing the
Short Story and New Media (and saw a Kindle for
the first time) and presented the Sean O'Faolain
short story award to the winner. See my blog for the full
results.
I judged, along with Sue Guiney and Brian Clegg,
a wonderful science-inspired fiction and poetry
open mic night at the British Science Festival.
Thanks to all who came, congratulations to
winner Heather Wastie!
My flash story,
Vegetable Mineral,
which was a finalist in PANK's first 1001
Awesome Words competition, is published in the
September issue.
I have a guest blog post up at
Tomlit about how a writer needs to trust her
reader, and I tell the "story" of How I Got Published on
How Publishing Really Works, to commemorate
the 2nd anniversary of The White Road and Other Stories.
11th I read my
shed story, Drizzling,
and two new flash stories at the first ever
ShedFest in Bristol!
1st I
read at Word of Mouth,
at the Thunderbolt pub, Bristol.
august
I have just turned my (non-complete)
list of UK & Ireland lit mags that publish
short stories - 115 so far! - into a PDF file. Download
the list.
My flash story, Vegetable
Mineral, has just been accepted by a new
audio short story magazine, 4'33, and will be published
in the next few months, read by me.
14th:
I did a book signing at Blackwell bookshop,
Bristol, Park Street.
The fruits of my first
gig as Fiction Editor are now published in Southword Issue 18. Enjoy!
I have just incorporated
TheWhiteRoadandOtherStories.com into this
website instead of its own site. Visit the www.taniahershman.com/thewhiteroad
section of the site to find out more about my
short story collection - including excerpts and
reviews - about flash fiction and about
science-inspired fiction.
july
 |
I
have just received a grant from Arts Council England
to write a
collection
of biology-inspired short stories inspired
both by a 100-year-old biology book and by
spending time in the labs as writer-
in-residence in Bristol University's
Science Faculty.
I am now blogging on the brand new Science Faculty blog.
Stop by to read my latest tales from
the lab. |
My
story The
Perfect Egg has been accepted for
publication by Nature magazine for the Futures section, and my flash
story, Einstein
Plays
Guitar, has been accepted for
publication by A capella Zoo.
I am taking
part in the Oxfam 24-hour Readathon at Oxfam
Books, 91 Marylebone Hight Street, on July
5th.
I am going to be on the Radio 4 program Off the Page on July 8th
talking about science and about being writer in
residence.
june
A week of my flash stories is being
broadcast on BBC Radio 4's Afternoon Reading,
on Tues June 29th, Wed June 30th and Thurs July
1st, 3.30-3.45 pm UK time, and then available for
7 days afterwards online. One story is featured on
Radio 4's Pick of the Week.
may
Two short short
stories inspired by Elizabeth Bishop's poetry
have just been published in Issue 4 of the Horizon
Review. A new
review of The White Road and Other Stories,
is published in the Huffington
Post as part of Short Story month.
The wonderful
fundraising 100 Stories for Haiti is now
available as an audiobook, with audio versions
of 20 of the stories, including my story, Mugs.
Available on Audible.com and iTunes. Get it now!
march
Seán Ó Faoláin Short Story
Competition,
which
I am judging, has just opened for
entries (deadline July 31st). Click
on the link for more about how to submit, and
read my recent blog post for
hints about the stories I love to read.
My Flickering Self is
published in Contrary Magazine's Spring
Issue.
Mugs is included in
the wonderful 100 Stories for Haiti
anthology, whose proceeds are donated to
help the victims of the Haiti
earthquake. Please buy a copy now and
support the cause.
Think
of Icebergs and London Park are
published in Litro's March "Climate"
issue.
february
Two flash
stories I wrote
inspired by the poetry of Elizabeth
Bishop, She Herself Was Gone and Of Fish
and Bread and Tea, have been accepted
for the next issue of the Horizon
Review.
Think
of Icebergs
and London Park have been accepted for
Litro's March "Climate" issue.
Plaits has been accepted for Short Fuse's
March 10th hair-themed reading event!
Exchange
Rates, a play I
adapted from my short story, won the Total Beast 6-minute
play competition and was performed
in London on 31st January 2010.
jan
I have recently
posted a (non-complete) 2010 list of UK
& Ireland lit mags
that publish short stories on my blog.
which may be of interest to short story
writers.
I am the current
Fiction Editor of Southword magazine, one
of the judges for both the Bristol Short Story
Prize and the Brit Writers' Awards.
Click on the links for more about how to
submit.
My Article on the
joys of short stories, "Stopping to Smell the
Miniature Roses" is published in
Bellatrista.
Exchange Rates, a play I
adapted from my short story, is a finalist
in the Total Beast 6-minute
play competition and will be
performed, together with the other
shortlisted entries, in London on 31st
January 2010. For more details, click here.
|
EVENTS
2013
June 22 Activities for National
Flash Fiction Day, Bristol
August Co-tutoring Arvon Foundation
course, Science & Writing, Totleigh Barton
October Short Story Masterclass,
Sheffield Hallam University
November Reading at Kent
University
|
