Tania Hershman 🏳️‍🌈
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taniahershman.bsky.social
Tania Hershman 🏳️‍🌈
@taniahershman.bsky.social
3.3K followers 630 following 940 posts
Queer writer of odd things. 10th book, "It's Time", a hybrid chronomemoir, out now. Permissioner, founder of Unbox Your Words. She/they 🏳️‍🌈 www.taniahershman.com; https://taniahershman.substack.com/; https://www.instagram.com/tania_hershman_writes
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taniahershman.bsky.social
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..."
November 16, 2025 at 1:08 PM
taniahershman.bsky.social
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.
November 8, 2025 at 1:23 PM
taniahershman.bsky.social
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.
October 26, 2025 at 10:29 AM
taniahershman.bsky.social
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.
October 22, 2025 at 9:25 AM
taniahershman.bsky.social
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.
October 21, 2025 at 2:44 PM
taniahershman.bsky.social
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…
October 14, 2025 at 4:05 PM
taniahershman.bsky.social
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.
October 14, 2025 at 3:28 PM
taniahershman.bsky.social
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.
October 12, 2025 at 6:12 PM
taniahershman.bsky.social
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...
A photograph of the front cover of the FUEL anthology ebook, with a banner across the top right hand corner saying "Ebook with 12 bonus prize-winning stories", a picture of a yellow petrol pump, and below the words "FUEL" in large font. Overlaid in white font is the text "HIghly Irregular Newsletter #34 Oct 2025: FUEL ebook, physics collides with fairy tales, warm up your writing muscle, and more cheering and celebration, and musings on the gift economy" and below the web link taniahershman.substack.com.
October 5, 2025 at 1:16 PM
taniahershman.bsky.social
It's publication day for FUEL ebook—with 75 prizewinning flash fictions plus TWELVE bonus flash stories not in the print book! It's a great read *and* all profits go to UK fuel poverty charities. The print book raised over £4k; winter is coming, help us raise more: www.fuelflash.net/product/fuel...
The cover of the FUEL ebook, with a large photo of a yellow petrol pump, below which are the words FUEL: An Anthology of prize-winning flash fictions raising funds to fight fuel poverty, edited by Tania Hershman. There is a banner across the top right hand corner which says "Ebook with 12 Bonus Prize-Winning Stories!"
October 1, 2025 at 9:50 AM
taniahershman.bsky.social
Wonderful @bloodaxebooks.bsky.social Zoom launch tonight for three brilliant books by @emiliejelinek.bsky.social, @jesstraynor.bsky.social and @poetclare.bsky.social - can’t wait to get hold of the new collections! Cc @mslexia.bsky.social
A screenshot of a Zoom screen split into four, with Neil Astley, the editor at Bloodaxe, in the top left hand corner, in front of a bookshelf. Jess Traynor is in the top right hand corner, Emilie Jelinek in the bottom left hand corner, and Clare Pollard in the bottom right hand corner.
September 30, 2025 at 8:33 PM
taniahershman.bsky.social
"What if, instead of telling a story about how our species fell from some idyllic state of equality, we ask how we came to be trapped in such tight conceptual shackles that we can no longer even imagine the possibility of reinventing ourselves?"
The Dawn of Everything, @davidgraeberinst.bsky.social
This is a quote from The Dawn of Everything by David Graber and David Wengrow: "We are projects of collective self-creation. What if we approached human history that way? What if we treat people, from the beginning, as imaginative, intelligent, playful creatures who deserve to be understood as such? What if, instead of telling a story about how our species fell from some idyllic state of equality, we ask how we came to be trapped in such tight conceptual shackles that we can no longer even imagine the possibility of reinventing ourselves?"
September 30, 2025 at 3:52 PM
taniahershman.bsky.social
Very much looking forward to my first in-person reading from my new book, 'It's Time: A Chronomemoir', next Thurs 4pm at the Manchester Poetry Library alongside my brilliant @guillemotpress.bsky.social stablemates @susiecampbell.bsky.social and Prerana Kumar! No booking necessary, come say hello!
A cream-coloured background with three photos down the right=hand side, of a person with short red hair and the name 'Tania Hershman' underneath, a person with long dark and the name 'Prerana Kumar' underneath, and a person with long brown hair and the name 'Susie Campbell' underneath. On the left hand side is the text 'Presented by Guillemot Press: Discussing and reading from their recent works. Free event' and under that a picture of an open book, a clock and a small animal holding a book. At the bottom is the text '4pm on Thursday 25th September, Manchester Poetry Library.'
September 18, 2025 at 8:37 PM
taniahershman.bsky.social
Last few places left for my Zoom writing workshop 'The Art of the Swerve' this Sun Sep 21, 7-8.30pm UK. With a mix of playful writing exercises & discussion of swervy pieces, we’ll see how swerving might help us out of ruts & habits. Free & pay-what-you-can available: www.tickettailor.com/events/
Dark purple background with text in light pink which says Unbox Your Words Art of the Swerve Writing Workshop Sun 21 Sep 2025 7:00 PM - 8:30 PM BST Online, Zoom . Text underneath says: "Do you suspect that you’re often going down roads when you write that are so well-travelled they might be on the verge of becoming ruts? Is there a piece you’re working on – whether it’s fiction, non-fiction, poetry or a hybrid – that’s feeling stalled and needs a little spicing up? While swerving isn’t recommended while driving, there’s nothing better when on a wander than ducking through a hedge and seeing what magic lies on the other side, or forging your own route by dancing across open ground. Embracing the Art of the Swerve might mean writing in different voices, making new shapes on the page, crossing genres – but underneath it all is a sense of curiosity, play and an openess to experiment. Swerving means avoiding obstacles means ..."
September 18, 2025 at 8:07 PM
taniahershman.bsky.social
Unbox Your Words is a year old! The first post, which I sent out in Sep 2024, wasn’t a writing exercise but a provocation, so in celebration, this month‘s is too - an invitation to do something most workshops would tell you not to. Go on, try it! taniahershman.substack.com/p/unbox-your... #AmWriting
A black and white photo of a person with short hair smiling mischieveously and below, in various colours and different fonts, the words Unbox Your Words. Over the photo is the text, in white: “Unbox Your Words #12 Sep 2025: A writing provocation that most writing workshops probably wouldn’t suggest…!”
September 15, 2025 at 9:10 AM
taniahershman.bsky.social
In my Sep newsletter, I talk about joy, more joy, and whether I'm not only a queer writer of odd things but also a queer potter of odd things (with pics)! Letting go of ideas of form & utility in pottery leads me to interesting places, as it has in writing! taniahershman.substack.com/p/highly-irr...
A photograph of a green mug with a white inside and part of a green bowl with a white inside, and overlaid is the text "Highly Irregular newsletter #33, Sep 2025: Joy, swerving, more joy, pottery and my own take on kintsugi and celebrating 'flaws'". Beneath is a link to taniahershman.substack.com.
September 6, 2025 at 12:06 PM
taniahershman.bsky.social
After raising £4k for fuel poverty charities from the print anthology, the FUEL flash ebook—with 12 bonus flash stories—is on its way! That’s 87 brilliant, surprising prizewinning flash stories by writers worldwide, exploding the myth that there's a formula for a “winning” story. www.fuelflash.net
A screenshot of the cover of the forthcoming ebook version of FUEL: An anthology of prize-winning flash fictions raising funds to fight fuel poverty, edited by Tania Hershman. There is a picture of a yellow petrol pump, and text diagonally across the top of the page says "Ebook with 21 bonus prize-winning stories".
September 1, 2025 at 4:39 PM
taniahershman.bsky.social
Last few spots on my fast & fun Zoom 1-hr Writing Muscle Workout, Tues Sept 2, 7-8pm UK. Open to anyone at any stage of your writing journey and whatever word-shapes you write, free & pay-what-you-can places, all ticket-holders get the recording after. Join us! www.tickettailor.com/events/tania...
A black and white photograph of a smiling person with short hair, and over the photo is the text "Quick reminder: Zoom writing muscle workout next Tues: come join us for another fast-paced writing muscle workout on Zoom next Tuesday!" Underneath, in different colours, is the text "Unbox your words: give yourself permission to play". Info: there’s still time to grab a spot on my next fun, fast and furious Unbox 1-hour Writing Muscle Workout on Zoom this coming Tues Sept 2nd, 7-8pm UK Time. We’ll be doing 3 writing exercises straight after each other - and different from the first writing muscle workout - to see what directions your words might take when your writing muscle is well and truly warmed up and flexible! If you’re new to my Zoom writing workshops, they are always suitable for everyone, whatever shape you write in and whatever stage of your writing journey you are at. You will never be asked to share anything you’ve written, what you write is just for you. You’re very welcome to have your camera off if that’s most comfortable for you - the group tends to be quite large so everyone is muted, which doesn’t mean we don’t get a great discussion going in the chat! If you can’t join us live, everyone who books a place will get the recording afterwards, and I’ve been told it’s just as enjoyable as the live workshop - and you can take it at your own pace :) I never want cost to prevent anyone joining in, so there are always free, concessionary and pay-what-you-can places available.
August 29, 2025 at 10:53 AM
taniahershman.bsky.social
So grateful to anyone who takes time to say lovely things about something I’ve written—especially my newest odd thing in which I’ve done odd things I’ve never done before! Thank you to all those of you who have got in touch with your thoughts on It’s Time, every single comment means the world to me.
A screenshot of an instagram post by ImaginaryAstronautStudio with photo of the cover of my new book, It's Time, which has a flow chart with images from a tree to an apple seed, with the words "It's Time: a chronomemoir" and "Tania Hershman". Overlaid over the book is the text "This is a singularly amazing and compelling book by tania_hershman_writes - LOVED it. If you have any interest at all in Time or simply how to be alive to the world, I recommend it wholeheartedly!"
August 27, 2025 at 1:59 PM
taniahershman.bsky.social
Listened to my first episode of Search Engine podcast because I was bewildered by this "Dubai chocolate" thing. And they've just explained EVERYTHING I've never understood involving TikTok, Gen Z - and people who get sent food to film themselves eating online. www.searchengine.show/a-dubai-choc...
A screenshot of the page on the Search Engine podcast for the latest episode, entitled "Aug 22, 2025: A Dubai Chocolate theory of the internet". The image is of red and black cogs, and the words "search engine" in grey.
August 25, 2025 at 4:36 PM
taniahershman.bsky.social
A joyous week co-tutoring a residential course at magical Totleigh Barton on short fic, non-fic, poetry & hybrids with a group of thoughtful, generous, curious, talented writers! Thank you to my co-tutor, @hollycorfieldcarr.bsky.social and the @arvonfoundation.bsky.social team. I needed that 😊✨
A group of people sitting down both sides of a long wooden table, writing. The table is covered in pieces of paper, coffee cups, water jugs. Above the table hangs a decorative branch. There are dark wooden beams holding up the ceiling and a tapestry hanging on one wall. At the end of the room is a window looking out onto the garden. An open window looking out onto a garden where two people are sitting seperately at a picnic table, their backs to us.
August 25, 2025 at 2:24 PM
taniahershman.bsky.social
I never want cost to keep anyone from joining my zoom writing workshops so there are always free, concessionary and pay-what-you-can options. Find out more about my Sept Writing Muscle & Art of the Swerve workshops here - join us, whatever word-shapes you write! www.tickettailor.com/events/tania...
A screen shot of my Ticket tailor page yo book one of my Unbox Your Words workshops. One the left hand side is a white square with Unbox Your Words in several.colours, underneath is the text Unbox 1Hour writing muscle workout sept2025, tues2 Sep 2025 7pm to8pm BST, online, zoom. On the right is a black square with the words Unbox Your Words : Permission to play, and under, Unbox Your Words Art of the Swerve writing workshop, Sunday 21 Sept 2025 7pm - 8.30 pm BST, Online, Zoom Screen shot of the four ticket options for my Zoom workshops: general admission, free place, concession and pay-what-you-can.
August 12, 2025 at 10:21 AM
taniahershman.bsky.social
"I realize I'm interested not in just playfulness & permission to play but messiness." In my August writing newsletter—as well as two new Zoom writing workshops and links to my book launch recording—I riff on permission not just to play but to get 'messy'! taniahershman.substack.com/p/highly-irr...
Screenshot of my HIghly Irregular Newsletter #32 Aug 2025, with the subtitle: New book out now, two upcoming Zoom workshops, and Permission Corner with my book launch recording and musings on messiness... There is a small photograph of a smiling person next to my name, "Tania Hershman" and August 3 2025, and underneath is the text "Listen to me reading this post" and then the words "Hello, everyone" and a small picture of the cover of my new book, It's Time: A Chronomemoir.
August 6, 2025 at 10:08 AM
taniahershman.bsky.social
Wow, what a match!!! I don't know about the players, but I'm exhausted. Go, Lionesses! I never imagined when I was a kid that I'd be watching scenes like this. Magic!
Photograph of the England women's football team, with the text 2022 2025 European Champions.
July 27, 2025 at 7:18 PM
taniahershman.bsky.social
Just took a load of signed copies of my new hybrid book, 'It's Time: A Chronomemoir', published by @guillemotpress.bsky.social, to the Post Office! If you'd like one, my online shop is set up for worldwide postage (I hope): taniahershman.com/product/new-.... www.guillemotpress.co.uk/nonfiction/h...
A photo of a line of 8 copies of the same book, 'It's Time: A Chronomemoir", with a cream-coloured cover, on a bookshelf.
July 25, 2025 at 12:58 PM