2014
september
I have had a poem accepted for Poems in Which's new
issue - coming soon!
august
My short story, War
Games, is published in the summer issue of the
Wales Arts Review. Two very
short poems were published on Nutshells and
Nuggests and two poems have been longlisted for
Canterbury Poet of the Year 2014 and will be
published in the prize-winners anthology. My poetry
pamphlet was shortlisted for the Cinnamon Press
Poetry Pamphlet competition.
july
I have had two poems longlisted and one shortlisted
for the Wirral Festival of Firsts Poetry Competition
and my pamphlet was longlisted for the Flarestack
Poetry Pamphlet competition. My short short story, The
Perfect Egg, which was published in Nature
Futures in Jan 2011, will be included in Nature's
second e-anthology, available later this summer.
june
My short story, God
Glows has been longlisted for the Short
Fiction journal short story comp. Shortlist
announced in July. My brand new short story, War
Games, will be published in the Wales Arts Review's
Summer Fiction issue.
may
I'm delighted to be chairing
a panel on wierd and wonderful short stories with
the excellent Adam Marek, Rob Shearman and Dan
Powell at the London Short Story Festival,
Waterstones Picadilly at 11am on June 21st. More
information and book tickets here >>
april
I'm delighted that my prose poem, If Kissed By
A Dragonfish, has won third prize in the National
Flash Fiction Day microfiction contest! You
can read it, and all the winning stories, here.
march
The course on short story writing that I am
co-tutoring with the excellent Rob Shearman at
Arvon's beautiful Lumb Bank centre in August is
now full, but there is a waiting list. All levels
welcome. More
details here >>
My short story, The Party, will be
published in Room Magazine's Geek Girls issue.
My poem, Til
We Tumble, has been published on
Visual Verse, written, as per their instructions,
in less than an hour, to an image prompt.
My prose poem, Missing my Liar, will be
published in Issue #2 of Bare Fiction.
february
Delighted that my poem, Delville Wood, The
Somme, has been commended in the Magma
poetry contest and will be published in Magma.
2013
december
Bonnie ZoBell has reviewed My
Mother Was An Upright Piano on
her website : "These are more on the
short story than the prose poem end of flash
fiction. Even though they’re short even for
flash fiction, Hershman manages to tell full
tales, uncanny for their insight into the
human condition."
I am overjoyed that my flash story, Heavy
Bones, first published in my collection
The White Road And Other Stories, will
be included in the anthology Flash
Fiction International, to be published
in Spring 2015, edited by Robert Shapard and
James Thomas. Shapard and Thomas edited
anthologies of short short stories such as Sudden
Fiction, Sudden Fiction(cont/d)
and Flash Fiction Forward that were
such inspiration to me when I first began
writing 15 years ago and continue to inspire.
My 100-word short story, Biography
is published in the gorgeous new issue of Synaesthesia
magazine (page 72-73)!
And Muriel Maufroy has given My
Mother Was An Upright Piano a
delightful review over on the Gladstone's
Library blog: "As a whole, one could say
that a wind of freedom sweeps through those
pages in which science and poetry stumble into
each other and tantalizing shifts of
perception expose our secret thoughts and
feelings, some we did not even know we had."
november
My new online short story venture, ShortStops,
has just gone live! Go take a look, and see
why we're getting excited about short stories
-in print, online and live - here in the UK
& Ireland!
My story, Biography (ongoing) has been
accepted for publication in Synaesthesia
magazine. My story, Tunneling,
is published by Timber magazine.
october
The Big Bang salon that was scheduled
for Oct 5th at JW3 has been postponed, stay
tuned for the new date sometime next year!
My story, Tunneling, will be
published by Timber magazine.
september
My poem, Meat
Market, Smithfield, is published
in Amaryllis. Two of my short short stories have
been longlisted for the Lightship Publishing
Flash Fiction prize, results due October.
august
Three poems have been published in The
White Whale Review.
july
My flash story The
Bow, The Bow has been published on Cease, Cows.
june
My flash story There
Was No Boat has just been published in Tin House
as part of their Flash Fridays!
I am honoured to be one of the judges of both
the Literature
Works First Page Writing Competition and
the Spread
the Word Writing Prize.
My flash story, Also
Tends, is published in The View From
Here.
may
Three poems have just been accepted by the
White Whale Review.
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.
|
Upcoming Events
Oct 2014
Running workshop and presenting flash fiction prize
at Bridport
Prize Awards Ceremony, Bridport.
Nov 15 2014
Taking part in the Festival of Ideas' World War I
symposium as part of Bristol
2014.
Dec 2014
Publication of Writers & Artists' Book of Short
Story Writing, co-written by me and Courttia
Newland, Bloomsbury.
Jan 14, 2015 Reading at Loose
Muse, London
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