Tania Hershman 🏳️‍🌈

@taniahershman

Queer writer of odd things. 10th book, "It's Time", a hybrid chronomemoir, out now. Permissioner, founder of Unbox Your Words. She/they 🏳️‍🌈 ;

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Tania Hershman 🏳️‍🌈@taniahershman· 27d

My book, 'it's time: a chronomemoir', turns 1 today! And since it's also my birthday, if you fancy something new & slightly odd to read 🕰️, you can buy a copy with a 20% discount using the code BirthdayTime20: taniahershman.com/product/new-.... Happy to sign it and also to post worldwide! 🎁🎉

Picture of person with short red hair smiling and holding a book with a cream cover and purple design, title "it's time: a chronomemoir', with a red wall and a green plant in the background.

Tania Hershman 🏳️‍🌈@taniahershman· 29d

Delighted to stumble slightly late on the lovely news that the first very short thing I've written for several years (due to Total Immersion in Very Long Thing) has been shortlisted for the new Crannog mag Pushbike Prize for Flash Fiction! Congrats to my fellow shortlistees, go well, little flash!

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Crannóg
Ssodtoprne 12ght1t7789 nJtfta3600au0tu25:m04m2e76u1a3lit00 5 ·
These are the shortlisted stories for the Pushbike Prize for flash fiction. The three winners will be announced mid-August. Each winner will receive €500 and will be published in Crannóg 65, the autumn/winter issue, in September.
10,000 Steps a Day
A Road Trip with an Iberian Wolf
Achill
Belief
Certainly, Sorcha
Corpsing
Darkened Clarity
Denial.
Faux
Frankincense in the rain
Hedgehog Ambulance
If I Met You Over Coffee in Starbucks…
Inheritance
Last of the fruit
Mice
Re-hearse
Rich Person’s Orange
Russian Doll
Surrender
The Pool
We Asked Ourselves and Asked Ourselves
What She Dropped
White Lies
Winkles

Tania Hershman 🏳️‍🌈@taniahershman· Apr 18

Had a wonderful time this afternoon chatting about my personal journey to publication at the @writersandartists.bsky.social How To Get Published Day at @manmetuni.bsky.social! I talked about how I don't write to be published, I write to write; publication is a delicious bonus! Thanks for having me ☺️

Tania Hershman 🏳️‍🌈@taniahershman· Mar 12

In Permission Corner in my March Highly Irregular newsletter, I write about permission... not to publish. Read the rest of the post here: taniahershman.substack.com/p/highly-irr...

White text on a black background which reads: "It’s not that I think in some way the book “isn’t good enough” or it’s “too strange”. It’s that this book is deeply personal and it is private. It is for me. And I need to give myself permission to honour that, to understand that although I had thought of it as a “book”, not everything book-shaped is in fact a book. Sometimes they might be other things entirely, have other functions, purposes, uses. " and "Tania Hershman"

Tania Hershman 🏳️‍🌈@taniahershman· Feb 20

Not long left to submit your 300-word gems to Fish Flash Fiction Prize. I'm judging and I'm reading ALL the entries, so you know I'll see your story. Deadline Feb 28, send your word-shapes even if you think they might be "too weird" or "not flash enough"! fishpublishing.com/competition/...

Tania Hershman 🏳️‍🌈@taniahershman· Feb 18

Scared of the blank page? Fear not! Join me at my next Zoom Writing Muscle Workout this Mon Feb 23 7-8pm UK Time and all blank pages will be vanquished - by 3 fun writing exercises in 60 mins! Concession, free & pay-what-you-can available. Details & booking here: www.tickettailor.com/events/tania...

At that top, in black letters on a green background, the text, in a zombie font, "Does the blank page scare you??". Below, in purple letters on a white background: "Come along to my Writing Muscle Workout
on Zoom this Monday Feb 23rd 7-8pm UK
and slay the fear!*
Free & pay-what-you-can places available!

*All blank pages will be vanquished"

Tania Hershman 🏳️‍🌈@taniahershman· Feb 3

Come have fun with me on Zoom this Sun 7-9pm UK for my Fairy Tales-and-Crime-Mashup writing workshop! Open to writers of all word-shapes, free and pay-what-you-can places available, & if you can’t join live, all ticketholders get link to the recording after: www.tickettailor.com/events/tania...

Image has the text "Come have fun with me on Zoom this Sundaywhen we'll be colliding Fairy Tales and crime to see what happens! An excellent way to create a new piece for Sidekick Books Spies and Sprites submission calls too." Then a link to tickettailor.com. Below that a black red and white image of little red riding hood walking through the forest, and next to it the text: Unbox Your Words Writing Workshop - A Fairy Tales & Crime Mashup! Sun 8 Feb 2026 7-9pm GMT. Online. Zoom.

Tania Hershman 🏳️‍🌈@taniahershman· Jan 16

Jan's Unbox Your Words post has a roundup of previous posts, a kind of DIY writing course to do in any order, to give you permission to write what you want in the way you want to write it! I also made a vid of the Word Cricket exercise to get you warmed up! taniahershman.substack.com/p/unbox-your...

Black and white pic if person with shirt hair grinning, and text overlsid in white saying Unbox Your Words #16 Jan 2026: a roundup of posts so far and a word cricket video! And below that in different colours the phrase Unbox Your Words.

Tania Hershman 🏳️‍🌈@taniahershman· Jan 15

The fourth part of my audio serialisation of my book, "It's Time: A Chronomemoir" is out - head to Substack to find out how I make the connection between Time and a slice of mille feuille cake! taniahershman.substack.com/podcast You can also find it on Spotify by searching for "chronomemoir" 🕕😊

A colour photo of a slice of mille feuille cake with custard between layers of pastry. Over the image is the text, in white: "It's Time Audio #4 - Jan 15th: The fourth part of my audio serialisation of my book, "It's Time: A Chronomemoir ".

Tania Hershman 🏳️‍🌈@taniahershman· Jan 13

I'm talking about Permission over on Insta, how I thought I "shouldn't" make a reel until someone else gave me permission. Join me on Zoom this Mon Jan 19 for a Permission workshop to uncover some of your own shoulds & shouldnts! www.tickettailor.com/events/tania... www.instagram.com/p/DTdLqsljCPs/

Tania Hershman 🏳️‍🌈@taniahershman· Jan 13

Honoured to be judging the Fish Flash Fiction prize again & this time I’m reading ALL entries, not just a shortlist, so send me your tiny gems under 300 words - even if you think they're “too strange” or “not flash enough”, I’d love to read them! Deadline Feb 28: fishpublishing.com/competition/...

Screenshot of the following text: "Honoured to be judging the Fish Flash Fiction prize again & this time I’m reading ALL the entries so send me your tiny word-shapes, I’d love to read them! Deadline Feb 28, max 300 words: FishPublishing.com"

Tania Hershman 🏳️‍🌈@taniahershman· Jan 7

My first zoom workshops of 2026! Jan 19: a Permission workshop to bust your personal writing shoulds/shouldnts, habits & taboos. Feb 8: my Fairy Tale+Crime mashup! On Feb 23, a 1-hr Writing Muscle Workout. For writers of all word-shapes, pay-what-you-can option: www.tickettailor.com/events/tania...

Screenshot of my TicketTailor event page with three workshops - Permission workshop, with image of open door, Fairy Tale and Crime workshop with art of little red riding hood, and Writing Muscle Workout with art of frog lifting weights.

Tania Hershman 🏳️‍🌈@taniahershman· Jan 4

And this seems like more than serendipity - thank you, @joannechocolat.bsky.social, yes, this! "You don't need to write every day: you just need to keep your imagination alight. Feed it with books, with art, with films and theatre. That way it will always be ready when you need it."

Tania Hershman 🏳️‍🌈@taniahershman· Dec 27

Hello. I'd like to read to you, if I may! What am I going to read? My new book, 'It's Time: A Chronomemoir'...in audio instalments, it's loosely structured as a diary. Hear a snippet here www.instagram.com/p/DSw_xvqjazv/ and sign up here: taniahershman.substack.com @guillemotpress.bsky.social

A picture of a person with short red hair and a black long-sleeved tee-shirt sitting in front of a bookshelf, holding a book with a cream cover and images of apples and seeds and trees, with the title 'It's Time: A Chronomemoir'. The text overlaying the image says "Hi, I'm Tania and I'd like to read to you."

Tania Hershman 🏳️‍🌈@taniahershman· Dec 15

December's Unbox Your Words writing exercise takes inspiration from @lahenion.bsky.social's wonderful book, Night Magic & interview on @mandascott.bsky.social's Accidental Gods podcast, inviting you to see what the magic of darkness does for your writing! taniahershman.substack.com/p/unbox-your...

A screenshot of my Substack post which has an image of the book cover of Night Magic by Leigh Ann Henion, with an owl, a pink flower, a butterfly, a moth and other creatures, and white writing on a dark blue background which says "Adventures among glow worms, moon gardens and other narveks of the dark" above the title "Night Magic" and the author name. Below the image is this text from my post: "A few weeks ago I listened to a spellbinding Accidental Gods podcast interview with Leigh Ann Henion about her book, Night Magic, celebrating darkness in so many different ways, and then bought and devoured the whole book in one day. I am definitely going to run a Night Magic-inspired writing workshop next year..."

Tania Hershman 🏳️‍🌈@taniahershman· Dec 10

Love this, by @michpenn.bsky.social, in the new editon of @perversemag.bsky.social: “Such an angry box, tired of being told it’s a box when it’s a sweep of matter in an unknown universe…” Yes! #UnboxYourWords

Tania Hershman 🏳️‍🌈@taniahershman· Nov 26

Today is #FuelPovertyAwarenessDay so why not pick up a copy of the FUEL anthology of prizewinning flash fictions - it's a great read and profits go to four #fuelpoverty charities, including @nea.org.uk. The brand new ebook has 75+12 bonus stories = 87 flash stories! Buy here: www.fuelflash.net

The cover of the FUEL anthology of prize-winning flash fictions raising funds to fight fuel poverty, with a brightly-coloured petrol pump, and a banner on the right hand side saying "Ebook with 12 bonus prize-winning stories". Edited by Tania Hershman

Tania Hershman 🏳️‍🌈@taniahershman· Nov 20

Aaargh - temporary fault during the MOST thrilling Chelsea v Barcelona Women’s Champions League match - is it the FA from 1921 calling to say “The women are too good, shut it down!”

Tania Hershman 🏳️‍🌈@taniahershman· Nov 20

It’s rare that I learn something in the first minute of a podcast & then by the end am awestruck. I suspect I will run a writing workshop at some point (at night!) inspired by @lahenion.bsky.social's book. Thank you, @mandascott.bsky.social - listen here: accidentalgods.life/the-magic-of...

A screenshot of the page for the Accidental Gods podcast episode entitled "
#313 The Magic of Darkness: learning to love life in the night with author Leigh Ann Henion" The Episode Description reads:
Do you love the dark? Do you yearn for sunset and the amber glow of a fire with the night growing deeper, more inspiring all around you? Most of us don’t – though our ancestors through all of history have lived by firelight, moonlight, starlight… until the modern era of light at the flick of a switch. But there’s a world out there of sheer, unadulterated magic that is only revealed when we put aside the lights and the phones and the torches and step out into the night – as this week’s guest has done..."

Tania Hershman 🏳️‍🌈@taniahershman· Nov 18

Urgent business in my in-tray.

Picture of tortoiseshell cat sitting inside box covered with a coloured scarf, with yellow and green post-it notes in front of her and the side of a beige bowl holding bens.

Tania Hershman 🏳️‍🌈@taniahershman· Nov 17

Honoured to be this year's @bridportprize.bsky.social flash fiction judge! Send me your word-shapes of 250 words & under, the pieces you think only you might love, that might be “too strange” or “not quite enough…” There are no rules! bridportprize.org.uk/the-competit... #flashfiction

Screenshot of the Meet the Judges page from the Bridport Prize with a black and white photograph of a woman with very short hair grinning, and the following text: "Tania Hershman
Flash Fiction Judge
Line Break

Tania Hershman is a queer writer of odd things, the author of three collections of short stories and flash fiction, four books of poetry and two hybrid books. Tania’s creative-non-fiction hybrid book on Time is forthcoming from Guillemot Press. Tania is editor of Fuel: An Anthology of First-Prize-Winning Flash Fictions Raising Funds to Fight Fuel Poverty, offers monthly writing prompts/provocations/exercises through Unbox Your Words – Give Yourself Permission to Play on Substack, and has a PhD in creative writing inspired by particle physics. 

www.taniahershman.com

Instagram: @tania_hershman_writes

“What I am always looking for is a voice that grabs me right from the first words so that I have no choice but to carry on reading. This might be a character, or a narrator, but what I want is freshness of language. No need for long fancy words or complicated plots, just write what only you can write in the way you want to write it. And send me the pieces you think only you might love, that might be “too strange” or “not quite enough…” There are no rules!” Tania Hershman, Flash Fiction Judge

What I wish someone had told me when I was starting out:

That everyone does it differently, this writing thing. That there definitely isn’t “one way” to write, and that each writer probably has more than one way. You find what works for you, and no-one else can tell you what you “should” or “shouldn’t” do. There are no rules!

When I’m stuck, this is what helps me move forward:

I don’t ever think of myself as “stuck”, I call it a “creative pause”, and for me that really is how it feels. I don’t write every day, sometimes a few weeks will go by. I let it be, I don’t feel bad about it. I feed myself – by reading, watching TV, films, going for a walk. "

Tania Hershman 🏳️‍🌈@taniahershman· Nov 16

In this month's Unbox Your Words writing prompt & exercise, we're celebrating... aunts! If you're not a subscriber and £3.50/month is a struggle, you can subscribe for free - so why not try it & inject some auntie energy in your writing! taniahershman.substack.com/p/unbox-your... #amwriting

Excerpt from my latest Unbox Your Words writing prompt & exercise: "There’s something about aunts, isn’t there? They’re often fierce, intrepid, someone you can talk to precisely because they aren’t one of your parents. An aunt may be biologically related or may not. As they say in an article on Blavity called “5 TV Characters Who Gave Rich Auntie Energy, Inspiring Us All to Live Unapologetically”: “In television shows, auntie energy is marked by independence and freedom. These women often are childfree, unmarried, well-educated and successful in their profession. Each character that falls under the archetype dismantles pre-existing stereotypes of womanhood. Among Black women, there’s always been love for the rich auntie energy.”

Let’s meet a few aunts (and great aunts) in fiction and in reality:

On leaving the house

by Frankie McMillan (from Eddie Sparkle’s Bridal Taxi)

For years my great aunts never left the house – they could be waylaid by a man on the street, be blown off course and away from safe waters – but that all changed when..."

Tania Hershman 🏳️‍🌈@taniahershman· Nov 8

Join me for my Zoom Writing Muscle Workout tomorrow (Sun) evening 7-8pm UK: 3 writing exercises in 60 mins to warm up your writing muscle, whatever shape you write in! Free & pay-what-you-can available, if you can't come live you'll get the recording afterwards: www.tickettailor.com/events/tania...

Screenshot of booking page for my Unbox 1-Hour Writing Muscle Workout Nov 2025, with cream text on khaki at the top, and a picture of a cartoon sloth lifting a weight.

Tania Hershman 🏳️‍🌈@taniahershman· Oct 26

Being at the Lionesses v Brazil match last night inspired me today to write the scene in my alt-history novel where one of my main characters & her friends go to their first women's football match in 1917 & have their minds blown. It's not what my novel's about, but I think it might play a big part!

A black and white photograph of five women football players from the period of WWI in Britain walk onto a pitch, with a fence separating them from a large crowd.

Tania Hershman 🏳️‍🌈@taniahershman· Oct 22

I'm about to give a talk on Zoom to an undergraduate narrative non-fiction class - I am not a fan of genres and labels, so will be encouraging them to get "naughty" and write what they want in the way they want to write it, showing them what I did in several of my own books, including It's Time!

Cover of my book, It's Time: A Chronomemoir, by Tania Hershman, which is cream-coloured with a flow-chart-like illustration with images of trees, apples, seeds.

Tania Hershman 🏳️‍🌈@taniahershman· Oct 21

One of my favourite books of the past few years is 'Interdependence' by ecologist & philosopher Kriti Sharma: "So much has to come together to bring a body into being at every moment—as much in this moment as in the moment of conception or the moment of birth. The body is always being created."

Screenshot of the following text:
Interdependence by Kriti Sharma

Staying alive depends on a vast number of details coming together moment after moment after moment—small details that are largely taken for granted, like whether or not one’s head is immersed in air (and not water) when one’s lungs gasp reflexively. It is not necessarily the case that a body is created once and is just maintained thereafter. So much has to come together to bring a body into being at every moment—as much in this moment as in the moment of conception or the moment of birth. The body is always being created.

Tania Hershman 🏳️‍🌈@taniahershman· Oct 14

Might I highly recommend the Quiet Posters feed here on BlueSky with posts from those who don't raise their voices much? It's my source of serenity, art, poetry and more, it's what I love about social media. Yes, my other feeds include Cats! *and* Cat Pics, what of it??

A screenshot of my Quiet Posters feed, with this text:

‪The Old Operating Theatre Museum & Herb Garret‬
‪@oldoptheatre.bsky.social‬
· 3m
⚰️ ☠️ This Thursday, Dr Cat Byers will be bringing 'Death & The City' to the Old Operating Theatre. Discover the histories of crime, corruption and illegal cadaver trading in Gilded Age New York.

🔗 Tickets available now: oldoperatingtheatre.com/event-posts/...
@heymorguegirl #OldOpTheatre
‪Thomas S Brown‬
‪@tomsbrown.bsky.social‬
· 9m
I am going to have such a large whiskey when we pass the Tories! I'd better keep it handy at this rate!
‪CarolineJMolloy‬
‪@carolinejmolloy.bsky.social‬
· 18m
110,000 🤩
‪Adam Horovitz‬
‪@adamhorovitz.bsky.social‬
· 7m
Better get it in soon at this rate. Definitely would warrant a particularly good whisky too…
‪Bill Herbert‬
‪@billherbert.bsky.social‬
· 28m
Like that noted admirer of carpets, Walter Wall, we are terribly keen on floor coverings, us. We are therefore delighted by how well Elena Brake’s poem about her home town, Axminster, fits into the #GhostFurnitureCatalogue:

ghostfurniturecatalogue.wordpress.com/2025/10/14/e...
Elena Brake: Where They Make Carpets
My town is a carpeted town paths underlaid, edges trimmed rolls of royal fabric spin over looms, spill repeated patterns weave bridges over rivers tuck tunnels under carriageways in and under out a…

Tania Hershman 🏳️‍🌈@taniahershman· Oct 14

Love this (I have a weakness for pieces with bullet points), by @corinnaboard.bsky.social, in the new issue of @perversemag.bsky.social! #cacti "I visit the cacti in the Princess of Wales Conservatory at Kew. I stay there for a long time and stand very still. The air around me prickles."

Screen shot of this piece from Perverse poetry mag:

Corinna Board

Cacti

A saguaro cactus can live for over 150 years and reach heights of up to 60 feet.

In a scene from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, the Man With No Name is standing next to a saguaro cactus, smoking a cigarillo.

I am always drawn to the bad guy. This is why I need thorns.

A human body is 60% water. A cactus is 90% water.

When Diego Rivera painted Landscape with Cacti (1931), he anthropomorphised the cacti. One of them appears to have breasts.

My French ex gave me a cactus. I gave it to a co-worker for her birthday, and she pretended to be grateful.

In 1967, Jacques Dutronc sang dans leurs coeurs, il y a des cactus on live TV.

I visit the cacti in the Princess of Wales Conservatory at Kew. I stay there for a long time and stand very still. The air around me prickles.

I am convinced I was a cactus in a previous life.

Once every 100 years, I flower.

Tania Hershman 🏳️‍🌈@taniahershman· Oct 12

Do you have "Fear of Physics"? Let me cure you at my Zoom writing workshop, When Physics & Fairy Tales Collide, Mon Oct 20 7-9pm UK! We'll play with weird & wonderful physics words, celebrate female physicists and invent particles! Pay-what-you-can available: app.tickettailor.com/events/tania...

A screenshot where the top half of the screen has white writing on a green background, and it says When Physics and Fairy Tales Collide - Zoom Writing Workshop
Mon 20 Oct 2025 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM BST
Online, Zoom. Underneath is a picture of different coloured brightly lit lines, and the text: "Physics is philled with galaxies of inspiration for writers of fiction, poetry, non-fiction and hybrids, from delicious terms like 'charmed quark', 'gluon', 'boojum', 'superstring' and the 'luminiferous aether' to mysterious and magical concepts such as 'dark' energy', 'parallel universes' and 'quantum gravity". Writers have been using fairy tales as inspiration for centuries, borrowing characters, structures and general fairytaleishness. What might result from the collision of these two universes? Let's experiment, creating physics fairy tales, naming our own subatomic particles, and inviting Snow White, Goldilocks and all the dwarves into the lab!" On the right it says: When Physics and Fairy Tales Collide - Zoom Writing Workshop
Mon 20 Oct 2025 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM BST
Online, Zoom.

Tania Hershman 🏳️‍🌈@taniahershman· Oct 5

In my Newsletter I talk about the FUEL ebook, 2 new Zoom workshops, do more cheering in the Palace of Cheering & Celebration, and muse about the gift economy, The Commons & the “counter-intuitive” mystery of free workshop tickets in Permission Corner! taniahershman.substack.com/p/highly-irr...