The White Road Audiobook!

Today's the 10th birthday of my first book, The White Road & Other Stories, published in 2008 by the fab Salt Publishing! To celebrate, I've made an audiobook with the wonderful Soundbite Recording, which will be out later this month. Here's a teaser:  



 More info on the book here>>

Powers of Ten

I'm very happy to have found a home at the Blue Fifth Review for an odd little hybrid poem/fiction inspired by the wonderfully strange 1970s science film "Powers of Ten" ! You can read the piece here and watch the film below!

Writing and Mental Health

I've never been asked questions about writing and mental health & well-being before - here is an excerpt from my responses to questions by the Ignis Poetry Collective, a new organisation aiming to "explore and improve mental health via poetry and writing"

Do you think there has there been a direct impact upon your mental health/well-being as a result of leaving behind science journalism in favour of fiction and poetry? 

Yes – I was much calmer when I was a science journalist! I had some sort of structure, I had deadlines, I was being paid for each article, and more than that I was leaving the house to meet fascinating people, learning about new technologies and breakthroughs, it was very stimulating, I loved that job. But writing fiction was my dream from childhood, and at a certain point there was no more ignoring that. When I started writing short stories, I also started experiencing great mood swings and anxiety, because I was delving inside myself, spending more time alone – and obviously no-one was waiting for me to produce anything, and the chances of getting paid for it were fairly slim.

You can read the full interview here: https://ignispoetrycollective.wordpress.com/blog/ 





 

Talking about reading... and writing

Two new interviews with me this week - the first is an audio piece over at the Royal Literary Fund's website in which I talk about my reading habits and reference the Large Hadron Collider (of course):

'The first writing course I ever went on was actually a reading course. The library was my church as a child, but I'd never stopped to look at the page as a writer might'

Listen to the piece (which is 3 minutes long) here:  https://www.rlf.org.uk/showcase/tania-hershman-mrh/

And the lovely folk at the New Flash Fiction Review asked me some questions about my flash story, My Mother Was An Upright Piano, which is the title story of my second collection from 2012, and is shortly - and most thrillingly- being reprinted in an anthology, NEW MICRO — EXCEPTIONALLY SHORT FICTION (W.W. Norton & Co., 2018). Here's a taster:

TD: What gives micros their power? Language? Silence? Structure?

TH: As with any piece of great writing, this is hard to pin down, and I am an avoider of general pronouncements. I read around 1000 short and very short stories and poems, and non-fictions, every year, and I demand no less from a great piece of writing than to feel like I have been punched in the gut. Every piece that does that to me seems to do it in its own way, each writer makes it their own, which is the way it should be. I have a great love for a freshness of language, cliché turns me off, laziness of language will stop me in my tracks. Voice is what grabs me as a reader, the voice of a character or the narrator, in any piece of any length. The story itself, the plot, maybe be tiny and quiet, I never ask for enormous events to happen, there is great power in the small moments.

You can read the full interview, in which I carry on unhelpfully refusing to make grand pronouncements, here! http://newflashfiction.com/interview-with-tania-hershman/

Suffragette-themed writing workshop - coming to a location near you?

I ran a suffragette-themed flash fiction workshop for the fabulous Word Factory yesterday in the gorgeous Tara Theatre, culminating in a performance that night of the brand-new work the participants produced. I've never done anything quite like that before - and was very moved by the pieces produced by the 18 writers, which dealt with the present and the future as well as the past. I did a huge amount of research, and would love to run this workshop again - please do get in touch with me if you think you'd like me to run one near you! We can discuss fees & logistics, I am happy to customise it for different groups and different needs!

Happy Birthday to Some Of Us Glow...!

My short story collection, Some Of Us Glow More Than Others, is a year old today! In celebration, my publisher, Unthank Books, asked me to share some thoughts on writing short stories on their blog:

"What is a short story? As a writer, I’d rather ask: What can I make the short story do for me?" 

You can read the full blog post here, your thoughts on my thoughts very welcome!

and find out more about the book here: 

Bursaries for Arvon Flash Fiction course for BAME/Low income writers

My crowdfunding campaign went wonderfully -  I can now offer three £250 bursaries for BAME writers or writers on low income who would like to attend the Arvon foundation 5-day residential flash fiction course I am co-tutoring, with the amazing Nuala O'Connor, in Devon in November. More details about the course here - there are only a few places on the course left. This funding is coming directly from me -  if you'd like to be considered for one of the £250 bursaries (you will need to pay for the remainder of the course fee yourself) or you know someone who is not on social media who might like to apply, please email me taniah@gmail.com as soon as possible and let me know why you'd like the funding! It's going to be a wonderful week, come join us!

Tania

Why I write: A sense of wrongness

I'm over at the RLF's Vox audio podcasts today, with a piece I wrote and recorded for their "Why I Write" series. I had no idea what I was going to say before I started writing the piece - and thinking about it, I realised something I hadn't understood before, that I write out of a sense of wrongness: "For the first forty-four years of my life I’ve always felt in some way or other, myself, wrong. Wrong inside this body. Wrong inside my head. Not a strong wrongness, but a slight vague feeling." You can listen to the rest of my musings on wrongness, rightness and writing here!

Crowdfunding for Arvon bursary

Going on an Arvon residential writing course can be a life-changing experience for both beginner and more experienced writers - I know this from personal experience! However, the costs (£720 -£770 per place) can be daunting, even with the grants that Arvon itself offers, so I am crowdfunding to offer up to four half-funded places for those who wouldn't consider applying or be able to apply - BAME writers, writers on low income, writers from other marginalised communities - on the 5-day residential Arvon Flash Fiction course I am co-tutoring with Nuala O'Connor in November 2018. Every pound helps, if you can spare it! I have raised almost 25% already in only a few days, which is amazing.

When I have raised the funds I will call for applications from writers who would like one of the places.  You can find out more about the course here.

Terms and Conditions FilmPoem

I always love it when someone takes a piece of my writing and uses it as inspiration for another type of medium - several filmmakers have made films of my flash fictions and a poem, you can see them here (scroll down). And now Helen Dewbery and Chaucer Cameron of Poetry Film Live have made a film of the title poem from my new collection, published last year by Nine Arches Press - with the added delight that I asked my brother, Nick Hershman, if we could use one of his songs, and he agreed! I think the result is rather wonderful, I hope you enjoy it:

Terms and Conditions from Elephantsfootprint.com on Vimeo.

A personal short story anthology

Jonathan Gibbs invited me to contribute to his fantastic weekly project (which you can sign up to to receive by email) in which a short story fan picks their own "personal anthology" of 12 short stories, sometimes on a theme, sometimes not. I really enjoyed putting my personal anthology together, and picked 12 stories that are all available to read online, ranging from 400 to 4000 or so words, and from the US, UK, New Zealand, Ireland and Israel. Here's a taster:

When I started compiling my personal anthology, at first I thought it would be more of a Desert Island short stories, the ones that have stayed with me for years, the stories I use over and over again in workshops and which leave me reeling each time I read them (my requirement for a great short story). But then I stepped back and noticed a theme running through: Family. Not just the one we are born into, but the families we choose, be that in romantic relationships or friendships. This is something that crops up in my own work again and again – my first collection turned out (unplanned) to be about different ways to approach parenthood, or non-parenthood, and all my stories (as perhaps all stories of any length are) address the difficulties of relating to other people. These are 12 of my all-time favourites, varying in length from a few hundred words to a few thousand, and moving from the UK to America, New Zealand, Ireland and Israel. I would be very happy with them on a desert island – and they are all available to read online too. I hope you are left reeling from some of them too.

'Mother' by Grace Paley, First published in Later The Same Day (FSG, 1985), included in Sudden Fiction, edited by Robert Shapard and James Thomas (Peregrine Smith, 1986), and available to read online here

This is one of the first very short stories I ever read, in an anthology of “sudden fiction” edited by Robert Shapard and James Thomas and published by Norton in 1983, and I was knocked sideways by it. How is it possible to do all this in just over a page?...

Read the rest here!

My writing week - an audio diary

The Royal Literary Fund, my employers and a wonderful organisation supporting writers, asked me to keep an audio diary for a week, about my writing. I picked a week when I actually did some! If you'd like, you can listen to it here...

Quantum shorts competition 2017

I'm honoured to once again be on the judging panel for the excellent Quantum Shorts competition alongside Brian Greene, oh my! So, what do you need to do to win? Well:

You have from now until 1st December 2017 to send us a story up to 1000 words long. We challenge you to open your imagination to the strange ways of quantum particles and anticipate a new era of quantum technology

There is much inspiration for your stories on the website, do check it out - looking forward to reading your quantum flashes!

God Glows short story

My nuns & biochemistry short story ‘God Glows’, from my new short story collection, is For Books’ Sake’s Weekend Read this weekend! Here’s a little taster:

Mother Superior agrees to fund Emmylene’s equipment.
    “Science is so soothing,” she says, her deep voice making it sound biblical.
    Soothing? thinks Emmylene, almost tempted, once again, to blaspheme. Memories of frogs’ bodies slit open for prying fingers and the shrieking of one girl who vomited violently. Not so much, she thinks.
    “Pouring from one test tube to the other, the elements of life,” says Mother Superior. Emmylene sees that faraway look in her eyes.
    “Yes,” she says. “Soothing. I’ll go and place the order.”
    “Thank you, Sister Morris. Bless your endeavours.” Mother Superior sits back behind her desk and Emmylene goes to phone the supplier.

Read the rest of the story here >>

There's No-One In the Lab But Mice - On Radio 4 again!

BBC Radio 4 just re-broadcast my short story from last year, There's No-One In the Lab But Mice (produced by the excellent Sweet Talk Productions) in which I imagine what might happen when all scientists go on strike... And they allowed me to read it myself, for the first time! It's now available on iPlayer for those of you in the right regions to get that sort of thing - until Oct 22nd.

My excellent publisher, Jane Commane of Nine Arches Press, asked me to write a blog post about one of the poems in my collection, and the poem that came to mind was 'After Seeing Monet's Waterlilies And Then Hearing the News'. Here's an excerpt:

"When asked to write a blog post about a poem from my collection Terms and Conditions, at first I didn’t know which one to pick. And what to say about it? But when I leafed (on my Kindle, electronic leafing) through the book, this one stood out, the longest title and the feeling behind it still so raw, so present. And about what came after, what I discovered.

‘After Seeing Monet's Waterlilies And Then Hearing the News’ is exactly what happened. Let’s examine this like a journalist (which I used to be): Where, What, Why, When, Who.
Where was I? In the Portland Art Museum in Portland, Oregon.

What was I doing there? I was in Portland taking a poetry course (with Sharon Olds. Yes, SHARON OLDS. I wanted only to sit at her feet. Oh my.)

Why the Art Museum? A few of us, my new classmates and their friends, decided to take time off, go into the city, see some art.

When? Now this is the question...

 Read the rest of the blog post here...

Carpool Poetry - and Much Giggling

Clive Birnie, poet and publisher, who runs the brilliant Burning Eye Books, has a venture he calls Carpool Poetry, in which he drives around one or more writers and videos him talking to them about their writing. So, here we are, talking very very seriously about my new books. (Warning: there is giggling. It's mostly me.)

My poetry collection published today!

So happy to officially become a Nine Arches Press poet, with my first book of poems, Terms and Conditions - out today! Here's my 'Happiness' poem - more about the book here.

More on permission - to go straight ahead and follow diversions

Four years ago, I wrote a blog post for Writers & Artists on the subject of "permission" - a very important word to me, in writing and in life. I've just written a new post for W&A, a follow-up, talking about the new permissions I needed to move from short story writing into poetry, something that scared and daunted me! An excerpt:

This year sees the publication not just of my third short story collection, but also my first poetry collection. POETRY. When we last met, I was not a poet. Don’t tell anyone, but I didn't like poetry. I didn't understand it, I liked my words to stretch from one margin to the other. Line breaks? Why would anyone want to do that? How do you read them? What is a line? Where are my sentences?
So, how did I get from that to complete adoration of the line break, an insatiable appetite for reading poetry, and even to calling myself a poet?

Very slowly. And with many shots of permission along the way.

Permission to write poetry came differently from short story permission. I had always been writing prose (I never called it “prose” until I started hanging out with poets, for goodness’ sake!). I read stories as a child, so I knew roughly what one should look like on the page. After a few years, though, I needed permission to take myself seriously as a writer – and then the largest permission injection to propel me to my next stage: taking risks in my writing, experimenting...

Read the full article here:  Permission To Go Straight Ahead and Follow Diversions

June TaniaReads

Hello! In the run-up to the publication of my debut poetry collection, Terms and Conditions (see the gorgeous cover on the left, by artist Hollie Chastain), I'm delighted to read you four new poems from the book - and to give you details about my launch events in Manchester (July 27th) and London (July 31st), do head to my website to find out more. Here is this month's audio - happy listening!

Book launches in the North & South!

Please do come and celebrate my books with me at one of my launch parties in July, in Manchester or in London, where I'm immensely delighted to be joined by some truly amazing special guests as part of a cross-genre celebration - of poetry, short stories, novels and non-fiction!

July 27th - Book Launch & Cross Genre Celebration, together with Jo Bell and Kate Feld, at Waterstones Deansgate, Manchester. More details here.

July 31st - Book Launch & Cross Genre Celebration, together with Jacqueline Saphra, Melissa Harrison and Zoe Gilbert, at Waterstones Gower Street, London. More details here.

Today is publication day for my new book, Some Of Us Glow More Than Others, that rather handsome looking devil above, published by the excellent Unthank Books! There are more details about the book here - including links to some of the stories and where you can get your hands on one (or electronic hands). Thanks so much to my wonderful agent, Kate Johnson, without whom this would not be happening. I am dazed and grateful!

I also wanted to thank the amazing, tireless literary magazine editors and small presses who first published many of these stories - they are the lifeblood of the short story community and they give writers both joy and, vitally, the permission to keep on doing this thing we do. So, thank you: Ambit magazine, Bare Fiction, The Binnacle, Butcher's Dog, Catapult, Commonwealth Broadcasting Association, Edgeways anthology (Spread the Word), The Fiction Desk, Five Dials, kill author, Comma Press, The Lonely Crowd, Metazen, National Flash Fiction Day,  Nature Futures, New Flash Fiction Review, New Scientist, Out of Place (Spineless Wonders), Prose Poem Project, Red Room anthology (Unthank), r.kv.r.y., ROOM magazine, Salt Book of New Writing, Schemers Anthology, Synaesthesia magazine, STILL anthology (Negative Press), the Stinging Fly, Stories for Homes anthology, Timber journal, Wales Arts Review, Words with Jam, and World Literature Today.

Over on Twitter, I did a thread with #TenThingsAboutMyBook, and I thought I'd post it here too, in case you're curious:

#TenThingsAboutMyBook 1. The cover's glowing jellyfish refer to the discovery of green fluorescent protein which revolutionised mol biology!

#TenThingsAboutMyBook 2. 'God Glows' was written at Hawthornden Castle - my nun sits looking out over the valley near Rossyln Chapel.

#TenThingsAboutMyBook 3. 'Octopus's Garden' was inspired by a @FT profile of a woman who works as a diver for the Paris city council.

#TenThingsAboutMyBook 4. 'War Games' was begun during an Arvon workshop run by my co-tutor, @adammarek, on plotting (which I never do!)

#TenThingsAboutMyBook 5. 'And What If All Your Blood Ran Cold' was inspired by a @newscientist article about a brand new medical procedure.

#TenThingsAboutMyBook 6.'A Shower of Curates' - first published in Red Room - has the first lines from all of the Brontes' novels in it.

#TenThingsAboutMyBook 7. 'Empty But For Darwin' was inspired by a @BBCRadio4 programme about a person whose job is to paint chess pieces.

#TenThingsAboutMyBook 8. 'Experimentation' was the 1st story I wrote while I was writer-in-res in a @BristolUni biochem lab. It's FICTION :)

#TenThingsAboutMyBook' 9. The Plan' was inspired by a @newscientist article about the pitfalls of Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory.

#TenThingsAboutMyBook and finally, 10: I never thought I'd get an agent & I NEVER dreamed I'd have a THIRD short story collection. #DeepJoy

TaniaReads - April

 

Hello! This month I'm reading you a short story from my new collection, published next week by Unthank Books! Pop over to my website to find out more. Launch events coming soon!

So, here is my audio recording, I hope you enjoy it. (If you'd like to read the text of the the short story, it is online here, and the poem is here). Have a lovely rest of the month!
Best wishes,
Tania
www.taniahershman.com

"Truth" & Science on The Verb

I was one of the guests on the wonderful Radio 3 programme about language and literature, The Verb, which aired last night - they commissioned me to write a new story using "found scientific language" to fit with the programme's theme of "truth" - alongside Simon Armitage on truth and poetry, Jude Rogers on truth and pop music (there's a Spandau Ballet theme!) and Richard Gameson on truth and medieval scribes! You can listen to us discussing it all here - it's available til May 20th, I believe!

Coming May 2nd from Unthank Books. My third collection. Never would have believed it. Farrah Jarral, doctor and broadcaster, says this about the stories (warning: may scare you!):

This beguiling collection of writing defies categorisation and is unlike anything I've ever read before. Some Of Us Glow More Than Others is like a 21st century Edgar Allen Poe meets Margaret Atwood, with a sprinkling of Ursula Le Guin. The bright and sometimes eerie thread of science runs through it, reminding us of our fundamentally biological nature, and illuminating the boundaries between us and technology. Hershman's masterful, crystal clear hand weaves together satire, poetry, ethical commentary and science fiction into a tender, faintly dystopian treatment of the human condition. Science is Hershman's muse, but Some Of Us Glow More Than Others is never sterile, and teems with the possibilities that she invites the reader to consider. Her lyrical vignettes and fragments of intriguing stories leave the reader wondering: is this the future, or an imaginative counterfactual past / a reimagination of what could have been? She reframes the familiar by tweaking small details to create unexpected and unsettling scenes that stay with you for hours, from quotidian domesticity to complex human relationships. Her lucid prose sparkles with the most evocative words science has to offer. It's almost as if Philip Larkin rewrote Black Mirror. Science and art, genetics, religion, ecology and the animal world all come together in this extraordinary collection. I found myself constantly surprised by Hershman's deft storytelling, perfectly captured details, and the way she drew my attention to the alien things of everyday life. Hershman navigates the complex relationship between the modern scientific world, and the soft, living creatures subject to it, with tenderness, elegance, and wit. Whether chemistry and poetry or genetics and sexuality, Hershman infuses science into her stories with a lightness of touch and great tenderness. I will be re-reading it - and not just once.

TaniaReads February

I managed to record the February edition of TaniaReads just before the end of the month! Here it is below - sign up here to get it in your Inbox every month...

Hello! Apologies for the delay in sending out this recording, I had a very heavy cold, the hazards of audio recordings! Above is the cover for my forthcoming poetry collection, which will be published by Nine Arches in July. This month I'm reading you a poem from this book, and a longer short story from my forthcoming story collection. Here's the audio recording, I hope you enjoy it! (If you'd like to read the text of the poem, it's here, and the short story is online here.)



See you next month!
Best wishes,
Tania

www.taniahershman.com

Terms & Conditions... coming soon!

I am so in love with my cover - what do you think?? The artwork is by Hollie Chastain, and inside you will find my debut poetry collection, coming from Nine Arches Press in July... 

Tania Reads

I just sent out the first of my monthly 'Tania Reads' audio recordings of me reading poems and stories from my two collections, coming out later this year. Here's this month's, do sign up here to get it straight to your Inbox!

Alice Oswald on Writing, Rhythm, Unlabels

It's been a very long time since I've been moved to post about an interview with a writer or poet, but this video interview (and reading) by poet Alice Oswald - whose new collection, Falling Awake, just won the Costa Prize for Poetry - is utterly wonderful and inspiring, I think, to those who write prose as well as poetry, especially her thoughts on rhythm and on length. Here are a few quotes I posted on Twitter:

As soon as you say that you do one thing, you end up wanting to do something else

A poem could be a..sonnet until the last minute when I just find it's too polite & suddenly I'll smash it

A short poem has to last as long as a long poem. That's what I love. It has to be infinite in the same way

If you haven't ever seen her read, the first 30 minutes are a joy, less of a reading than, as the interviewer says, some sort of invocation. And then there's a Q&A. I went out after watching this and have been thinking about what she said about her own poems and her writing - and rhythms. She says: "The stronger your rhythms, the more disturbing things you see...You can navigate around your own brain by means of rhythm". This speaks to me because I have tended to write my own poems aloud - they are both a bit song-like, to me, and also a completely physical experience. I always read my short stories aloud too, but getting them on the page happens first. Rhythm is always important to me, and I will be thinking for a while about what Oswald has said about rhythm and my brain - and perhaps rhythm and the reader/listener's brain!

I feel she has also has given me a shot of permission - something I will always need as a writer but especially as a quite new poet - in terms of the legitimacy of the short poem. I love short poems, but wondered (perhaps an echo of the battle I had to fight over flash fiction and its place in the world) that they seem unsubstantial. Yet look at this short poem I just read in the New Yorker, which is sublime, and would you want more? It's about allowing me - and perhaps you? - to say what I need to say in as many words as I feel I need to say it.

I also like what Oswald says about not wanting to be called a "nature poet", which she very very often is.

"I think it's important not to sit too comfortably in a category, and that's why I get annoyed when people call me a nature poet. I mean, it's so tempting to be a nature poet. Then you know what you are writing about, you know what you think, you just do it and roll it out. For me, it's important not to know what kind of a poet I am, and each time I write... could be a science fiction poem. It hasn't yet been, but it could be!" 

This gives me another shot of permission on the road I have been travelling for a while now, of not labelling anything I am writing - poem, flash fiction, prose, story, non-fiction... I like her twist about how tempting it would be to feel comfortable under one label! But do we want to be comfortable? I don't think that's where the real work gets done. What do you think?

Here's the full video - enjoy!

Monthly audio poem or short story - or both!

In the run-up to the publication in mid-2017 of my new short story and poetry collections (oh my!), I'm going to be making a new recording every month of me reading one of my poems or short stories (sometimes both!). If you'd like to receive these directly into your Inbox, sign up here, and I will be reading to you from January...!

Arvon Starting To Write Course Aug 2017

I am really excited about co-tutoring on an Arvon 'Starting to Write' course for the first time, in August 2017! The three 5-day residential Arvon writing courses I went on over 10 years were quite literally life-changing, and it is a privilege to now be able to, I hope, pass some of that on. I had a great time tutoring Arvon's first flash fiction course this year, with the inimitable Dave Swann.

Next year, why not come and join me and my amazing co-tutor, Jo Bell, a great friend of mine, fantastic poet and teacher, at the wonderful Totleigh Barton in Devon - with our special guest, Inua Ellams, who is hard to describe because what doesn't he do? It doesn't matter what you write or want to write, it's about words in whatever shape they come! We will work hard, but we will also laugh, a lot. And eat clotted cream. It's Devon.

Here's a little more about the course, and we will have some news soon about funding we are organising to assist those who wouldn't normally be able to come on one of these courses...

. STARTING TO WRITE

Jump-start your word-machine

GENRE: Starting to Write
Aug 14th - Aug 19th 2017
Totleigh Barton

Starting to write fiction, poetry or other forms raises questions: Write what? How to write? Why write at all? There are no rules, no simple answers, but during our week together we will write, read, talk and imagine, leaving you with tools to discover how your own peculiar and unique word-machine works, as well as new pieces and ideas to propel you forward.

More details on how to apply here >>

If you're looking for a seasonal gift for the writer - or would-be writer - in your life, you might like a copy of Writing Short Stories: A Writers and Artists Companion (Bloomsbury, 2014), which I co-authored with the excellent Courttia Newland, and which includes short pieces from a number of fantastic short story writers in the middle, ideas for how to get your writing going and lists of our favourite short stories for more inspiration! You can get a signed copy from me here if you'd like (please do let me know in the message to the seller who to sign it to), with free postage in the UK. I am happy to post abroad too!

New Science-Inspired Story on Radio 4 This Sunday

It's been one of the greatest thrills of my writing life, having my short stories read on the radio. This is how it all started for me, my first "published" short story was actually a broadcast, in 2003, on the Afternoon Reading on Radio 4. There have been quite a few more since then, and I have written especially for radio a number of times - and now I have a brand new story on Radio 4 this Sunday night, Aug 28th, which for the first time they have allowed me to read! It's produced by the excellent Jeremy Osborne for Sweet Talk Productions. It's called "There's No-One In The Lab But Mice", and you can hear it live at 7.45pm and it will be available on Listen Again for 28 days after that, I believe. I hope you enjoy it, I had a lot of fun writing it!

The Enemies Project South West - Performance

There's this wonderful thing happening, The Enemies Project, where pairs of poets collaborate and then perform, all around the south-west of England, set up by Steven J Fowler and Camilla Nelson.

I was thrilled when Holly Corfield-Carr asked me to collaborate with her, and we will be performing our piece (which is still in progress) at the event in Bruton, Somerset, this Sunday night - do come along if you're near! Free entry, but booking is essential. Here's all the info:

Closely read

It as an honour and a gift to be so closely read, by anyone, and then to have these readers (often writers themselves) share their thoughts. I'm fortunate to have had this experience twice in the past few weeks, first by Neil Elder, author of the poetry pamphlet Codes of Conduct and my fellow Sabotage Awards shortlistee (congratulations, Neil!) on his blog, Neil Elder Poetry, where he responds to my poem, Life Just Swallows You Up: "I’m laughing, then thinking and feeling, and then admiring. I’ve read ‘Life Just Swallows You Up’ and I immediately want to re-read".

The second, also around a poem from my chapbook, is the excellent Proletarian Poetry: Poetry of Working Class Lives. Peter Raynard asked if he could reprint my Conversations With A Taxi Driver, Falmouth, and he talks about what the poem raised for him: "This is a fascinating short poem because it leaves a lot to the imagination, allowing us to drift with our thoughts the same way a taxi driver must do when waiting on their next fare." 

Thank you, Neil and Peter, I hope I can pass on the favour of such close reading!

Kissing, Climbing and An Aubergine

So, it's been a record week for me in terms of publications, with two poems and a flash story published in different places online, which, between them, cover kissing, climbing and aubergines. (see below). It's a wonderful, miraculous thing, being chosen by an editor and put between (virtual or actual) covers. And being able to share the links online is also joyous, especially when friends and strangers choose to get in touch with kind words.

But it's also surreal - all the more so in this turbulent year, and in particular in these few weeks of turmoil and uncertainty here in the UK, which haven't ended yet and may not for a long long time. I often find the disconnect between tragedies around the world and good news in my writing life hard to navigate. (As I thought about this blog post I was going to say "tragedies in the real world", but then again, I am a writer, and my writing is real, it is my real world too.) I feel guilty for celebrating these personal things.

As I was thinking about this, I realised that when I'm in despair, I turn to books, to poems, to short stories, novels, science writing. They help me. And when I read some of the comments people have made about my writing, I think, I am perhaps adding to that well, and they might be useful for one other person. I don't think my writing is some kind of panacea for the world's ills (apart from to me when I write it), but it's what I have to offer. I'm not particularly good at anything else, so this is what I've got. And I love celebrating other people's publications, so am trying to persuade myself that it's okay to every now and then be the one that other people are celebrating!

So, with delight, a little ambivalence, enormous gratitude to the editors of The Pickled Body, the Wales Arts Review, and Anthony Wilson (whose Lifesaving Poems blog is such an inspiration to me, I can't quite believe I am now one of them) -  and with encouragement to go and read everything else they publish, here are the links to my 3 new works:

Kiss The First in The Pickled Body (final poem)
Fire and Granite in Wales Arts Review
By Any Other Name, one of Anthony Wilson's Lifesaving Poems

Nature Poem: How To Be Here

So, I recently received my first poetry commission - to write a nature poem inspired by a particular location on the Bristol-Bath Nature Trail for the Festival of Nature! I've never written a site-specific poem before, and my first attempt was a little cynical and not so much about nature. Luckily, my second attempt seemed more suitable - and here I am reading it!



Click here to find out more about the Poetry Trail and the other poems

I'm absolutely delighted that my poetry pamphlet has been shortlisted for the fantastic Saboteur Awards, an annual celebration of all things indie - from books and publishers, literary magazines and live events to authors and performers - in the UK! It operates by public vote and the voting is now open until May 24th so please do pop over there and show some support to your favourite performers, lit mags, publishers etc... The link is here. My second collection, My Mother Was An Upright Piano, won 2nd prize in the short story collection category in 2013, which meant an enormous amount to me.

And on the subject of pamphlets/chapbooks, I've just been interviewed about mine over at Speaking of Marvels, a wonderful website which describes itself as "interviews about chapbooks, novellas, and other shorter forms". I am so happy that Will title the interview "Give yourself permission to write what you want to read" because permission is such an important word for me - in writing and in life, if the two can be separated - and something I try and pass on when I can. I had to answer some quite marvellous questions, here's one:

Without stopping to think, who are ten poets whose work you would tattoo on your body, or at least your clothing, to take with you at all times?

Adrienne Rich (I already have), Sharon Olds, Grace Paley, Richard Brautigan (poetic license there), Rumi, Jo Bell, Michael Donaghy, the author of the Song of Songs (in Hebrew), Elizabeth Bishop, Emily Dickinson

You can read the whole interview here, and find out more about my chapbook, Nothing Here Is Wild, Everything Is Open, here.

Interview in Eclectica Magazine

I was interviewed rather wonderfully, I think, by Paul Holler, for the excellent Eclectica magazine - he sent me one question at a time and then the next, based on my response! It's mostly me chatting about writing - short stories, poetry, using science etc... Here's a taster:

PH One of the things I find interesting about your work is how you use and approach science. It seems to me that you are at least as interested in the culture of science as you are in pure science. Examples of this include "The White Road" and "Heart." In the former story, you focus on the everyday lives of researchers in Antarctica. In the latter, your character, a heart surgeon, reflects on the experience of seeing a patient's heart stop beating in her hand.
To what degree do you see science a way into the characters you create? Do your stories begin with a scientific inquiry or with a character making a scientific inquiry?

TH: You are right that I am just as interested in the culture of science—in fact, I am interested in every aspect of science, from the methodology and the mindset to daily life in a lab, the creativity of experiment design, and the wondrous and often bizarre vocabularies, which I love to plunder! As to what comes first, it's really hard to say. I immerse myself in science all the time, I read New Scientist every week, actively opening my mind to ideas which I could use as springboards into stories or poems. Stories begin with a character or, more specifically, a voice, which may be the main character or a narrator. It's that voice talking to me that generally gets me going. Poetry begins differently, with a phrase, with certain words.

What I actively do now is collide two ideas together, very often a scientific one with something else I have been thinking about, and see what results. I have been known to read two things at the same time—say, a New Scientist article and an article on something entirely different in another magazine—just to mess with my head and produce something new. Messing with my own head is an intrinsic part of my process!

You can read the rest of the interview here -  and do check out Simon Perchik's wonderful poem, Untitled, among the other delights in that same issue:

With her name in your mouth
more than a word, a morning
and everywhere on Earth

 You can read the full poem here.

Debut poetry collection coming 2017!

I am extremely and inordinately thrilled to be able to tell you that - hot on the heels of my debut poetry chapbook of 22 poems - my debut full poetry collection, This Is Not My Midnight, will be published in July 2017 by the fabulous Nine Arches Press! I can't quite believe this is happening, with poetry, oh my.

And with such a fantastic press, run by Jane Commane, whose taste in poets and dedication to poetry - her own authors and the wider community - I admire so much. Nine Arches publishes some of my favourite, favourite poets, not least of all my great friend Jo Bell as well as Isobel Dixon, Mario Petrucci, Maria Taylor, David Clarke, Abegail Morley, and, next year, Rishi Dastidar and Angela Readman. I can't tell you much more now, will keep you updated!

Who Are We Writing To? Thoughts inspired by Wuthering Heights and Frankenstein

I just finished reading Wuthering Heights today - yes, for the first time! I am slightly behind on my classics. A few months ago I read Frankenstein. And both these books - I loved WH, but Frankenstein less so - do something which got me thinking about my own writing. Frankenstein is told in a kind of Russian-doll-like set of stories embedded in stories inside letters to people... The narrator is writing to his sister etc... so we don't hear from the protagonist (which might be Frankenstein or, alternatively, might be the monster) directly, but filtered through, frankly, too many filters for me to actually care about most of it. Wuthering Heights is also not told to us directly, but it is Nelly Dean telling Mr Lockwood all about what has happened with Catherine, Heathcliff etc...

What this got me thinking about was how worried I was, when I first began writing short stories, about who I was telling the story to. Surely there had to be someone who was being told, within the story? I couldn't get my head around the concept of it at all. And perhaps this is what was happening with Mary Shelley and Emily Bronte? Although it works, for me anyway, so much better in Wuthering Heights that perhaps this was Bronte's conscious choice, to have a single narrator, and everything filtered through/seen by her - because, frankly, had we been any closer to any of the main characters, this reader might have exploded! We still do have to suspend disbelief here - our suspicion that Nelly could never have remembered all these conversations in such minute detail (as well as the odd occasion where she seems to know what someone else was actually thinking)!

Slowly, slowly, I began to come to terms in my own stories with there not needing to be someone being "told" within the story itself, but that it was my "reader" - although it took years before I actually had any readers at all (not including my mother, who still thinks my best story was the one I wrote at 18 about the women who knits her husband a jumper and then stabs him while he is doing the washing up wearing it. Freudians, make of that what you will. No, that story will NEVER see the light of day.)

What I think helped me a great deal was that my first short story acceptance was not a print publication but was for radio - Radio 4's Afternoon Reading, in 2004. The story wasn't written to be broadcast, but when I heard the wonderful Lorelei King reading it, I felt like my character had moved outside of my own head, that she existed in the world, that she herself was speaking, rather than me writing her. Does that make sense? I cried. It seemed so preposterous, so miraculous, that I should have made her and then there she was.

That was the beginning of a beautiful relationship with radio - which widened from Radio 4 to Radio 3 and even dipped recently towards poetry - and that has definitely influenced everything I write. I read it all out loud, and I think that I am my First Reader, the first person the story is being told to. I tell it to myself, literally, as I am writing it. So that question isn't relevant any more. Of course, as my short stories began to find homes, in print and online, this emboldened me, to experiment, to play, and gave me the joyous sense that I was being read - by strangers - and that I also wanted to entertain these people who are so generous as to even get as far as my first line.

But that said - I don't believe that I think as I write, "What will a reader/listener think of this?" Or, actually, "Will the reader understand this?", which is more relevant to the kinds of weird fictions I write. I just wrote a short story for Radio 4 - it has been a long time since I've written fiction, I've been mainly writing poems, which are completely different for me - and I wrote it in the first person plural, the "we", which I love.

What am I trying to say? I'm not sure. If you think you might know, please do comment below! Do you feel like you need to know who you are writing to when you write? Have you read work that unsettled you because of this?

I suspect part of learning to love to read is learning to suspend disbelief that the book you are reading was not in fact written for you and you alone, is not talking directly to you. I'm not sure I could read in any other way; while I read I dissolve myself into it, especially the short stories I love, I become part of that wondrous thing that happens between text and reader, where something new is created each time.

I guess what I am trying to say in terms of writing is: Trust that this will happen, trust your readers and leave space for them. Frankenstein left no space for me, and as a consequence, I didn't enjoy it, didn't feel it. Wuthering Heights had me gripping my Kindle so tightly my knuckles went white. I'd rather that white-knuckle reading anytime, although my blood pressure may not agree!

Okay, back to Moby Dick now...

New short story published

Delighted to have a new short story, Octopus's Garden, published in the excellent online journal, Catapult! Here's an excerpt to whet your appetite:

As she slips into her wetsuit and adjusts her tank, she decides on this week’s alphabet game. Across the Universe, she thinks as she dives. All You Need Is Love. A Hard Day’s Night. Wait, what if it’s Hard Day’s Night? Or even It’s Been a Hard Day’s Night? Her mind a blank, she heads for the riverbed....

Click here to read the rest >>

Jigsawed

I'm trying to write a new short story for Radio 4, so of course I have eaten a lot of biscuits, phoned the bank  - and recorded this, for your listening pleasure, all 50 seconds of it: Jigsawed, a poem from my new chapbook (did I mention I have a new book?! It's available here.)

Manchester! End of All Things Podcast & Bad Language

I had a wonderful week last week, with 2 visits to Manchester - first to read at the amazing Poets and Players science-themed event, with Jemma Borg and David Morley! Video will be available soon.

After the event, Rob Cutforth whisked me and Jo Bell off to a cafe to interview us for his End of All Things podcast. This is the result (the interview begins about 8 minutes in) and involves much giggling, some talk of Ovid, and, perhaps, bits of usefulness about writing, I will leave that to you to judge!




Then, after a trip to London to talk to a very enthusiastic and delightful group of students and staff at South Bank University, back to Manchester to "headline" (what a nice word) at Bad Language, the live lit event I have been eyeing jealously on Twitter each month, wishing I was nearer.

What a fantastic event Fat Roland and Joe Daly create - do get yourself there! There's an open mic, a mix of poetry and short stories, and one headline act in the middle. I had a brilliant time, here's a picture courtesy of David Gaffney:

So, a very active week for me, from which I am now recovering, as we introverts need to. But so lovely that copies of my poetry chapbook are now out in the world, many ordered through my website and posted by me and others bought at the above events. I've had some wonderful responses already, each one unexpected, some by people I don't know and am probably not related to. Joyous, it is!

Nothing Here Is Wild, Everything Is Open

After the most wonderful launch on Friday Feb 12th at the Cork International Poetry Festival - together with Victor Tapner, whose chapbook won 1st prize in the Fool For Poetry competition in which I scooped 2nd prize - I'm delighted to announce that my debut poetry chapbook, Nothing Here Is Wild, Everything Is Open, is published!

Yup, seems I can't deny being a poet any longer, though to reassure all you fiction writers, my adoration for prose is undiminished - let's just say, the love affair with words continues. I really never thought things would take this turn, I feel very lucky and immensely grateful!

Here are a few pics from the launch

I had a great time, can you tell? :) (Thanks to Jill Abram for the photo.)

And here's the gorgeous cover, featuring artwork by Eileen White - a piece I bought from her last year and thought would be ideal for my poems, which are often in some way inspired by science (spot Sir Isaac Newton on there):

The book will shortly be available to buy from the publishers, The Munster Literature Centre's Southword Editions - but if you'd like a (signed) copy, wherever you are in the world, you can buy direct from me - all the information is here, including a sample poem!

Poem in the Irish Examiner!

I just discovered today that one of the poems from my chapbook, Nothing Here Is Wild, Everything Is Open - which is being launched next week at the Cork Poetry Festival! - was published in the Irish Examiner as their Tuesday poem! It's print-only, see below, hopefully it's readable! What a lovely surprise...

Short story talk...

I've been asked to waffle on about short stories quite a lot recently, I thought I'd share it all with you - first, here are a blue-tinged me and Kirsty Logan at Fictions Of Every Kind in Leeds in November, talking about short stories and writing:



Next, I was honored to be interviewed over at The Short Story, here's a snippet:

How has the editing process informed your own work?
 
What an interesting question! First, I have to say that it’s far easier to spot things in someone else’s work than it is in your own. What I do when I offer suggestions on someone else’s story is to remember to come at it from within what the writer wants to do, not how I would write that story.

And this week the wonderful folk at the Bristol Short Story Prize, for whom I am a judge this year, asked me a few more questions:

What influence do you think doing a PhD has had on your writing?

As a short story writer – and now also a poet – while I loved what I was doing, no-one was really waiting for me to do anything, by which I mean, I imposed my own deadlines, motivated myself. I didn’t have an agent chivvying me, for example. So the main reason for me to undertake a PhD in Creative Writing was to have a framework, to get gently yet firmly chivvied!  

You may discover that I disagree with myself in these interviews - any thoughts on your own writing processes, what competitions mean to you? Please do share in the comments!