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Terms and Conditions
Tania Hershman’s debut poetry collection, Terms and Conditions, urges us to consider all the possibilities, and read life’s small print before signing on the dotted line. These beautifully measured poems bring their stoical approach to the uncertain business of our daily lives – and ask us to consider what could happen if we were to bend or break the rules, step outside the boundaries and challenge the narrative.
In feats of imagination and leaps of probability, falling simply becomes flying, a baby collects the data and scrolls through everything it sees, and there are daring acts of vanishing and recreation. Be wary, for even the evidence here often leads us astray. And in between this, Hershman’s precise poetry elegantly balances the known, unknown and unknowable matter of existence, love and happiness, weighing the atoms of each, finding just the exact words that will draw up the perfect contract of ideas.
In feats of imagination and leaps of probability, falling simply becomes flying, a baby collects the data and scrolls through everything it sees, and there are daring acts of vanishing and recreation. Be wary, for even the evidence here often leads us astray. And in between this, Hershman’s precise poetry elegantly balances the known, unknown and unknowable matter of existence, love and happiness, weighing the atoms of each, finding just the exact words that will draw up the perfect contract of ideas.
- GenresPoetry
80 pages, Paperback
Published July 14, 2017
20 people want to read
About the author
Tania Hershman
46 books89 followersA queer writer of odd things, short, very short, and longer, writing teacher and editor based in Manchester, UK, my tenth book, It’s Time – A Chronomemoir, a hybrid creative non-fiction book about time, is published on July 17th 2025 by Guillemot Press.
I also have four books of poetry, three short story collections and two further hybrid books out in the world. My second poetry collection, Still Life With Octopus, was published by Nine Arches Press in July 2022, and my debut novel, Go On – a hybrid fictional memoir-in-collage partly inspired by being writer-in-residence in Manchester’s Southern Cemetery – by Broken Sleep Books in November 2022.
I am editor of the charity anthology FUEL: 75 Prize-Winning Flash Fictions Raising Funds to Fight Fuel Poverty (Feb 2023), and was honoured to be Arvon’s writer-in-residence from Nov 2022-April 2023.
I also have four books of poetry, three short story collections and two further hybrid books out in the world. My second poetry collection, Still Life With Octopus, was published by Nine Arches Press in July 2022, and my debut novel, Go On – a hybrid fictional memoir-in-collage partly inspired by being writer-in-residence in Manchester’s Southern Cemetery – by Broken Sleep Books in November 2022.
I am editor of the charity anthology FUEL: 75 Prize-Winning Flash Fictions Raising Funds to Fight Fuel Poverty (Feb 2023), and was honoured to be Arvon’s writer-in-residence from Nov 2022-April 2023.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
August 1, 2017
Tania Hershman's debut poetry collection, Terms and Conditions, is a wonderful, perceptive and sensitive read.
She discusses some very personal topics (Body, And what we know about time), beautiful scientific topics (Missing you, Surplus, 1919, and What is it that fills us) as well as whimsical topics which really made me smile and lifted me inside (Dressing for flight, The woman in the bath, The uncertainty principle and Happiness).
Hershman, who is also a successful and popular short story writer, turns her hand at poetry, and continues to spin the magic she so effortlessly weaves in her fiction. I really felt that the poems in Terms and Conditions spoke to me and took me away to different places, watching other lives and forced me to consider the wider picture, and of course, what it is to be human.
My personal favourites were Missing you, What it is that fills us, Body and Relativity which all featured within the last third of the collection. Hershman's writing here is lyrical, emotive and haunting; she experiments with the sound of her words and creates a poetic paradise.
Terms and Conditions is a blissful and beautiful read. Make sure you check it out!
She discusses some very personal topics (Body, And what we know about time), beautiful scientific topics (Missing you, Surplus, 1919, and What is it that fills us) as well as whimsical topics which really made me smile and lifted me inside (Dressing for flight, The woman in the bath, The uncertainty principle and Happiness).
Hershman, who is also a successful and popular short story writer, turns her hand at poetry, and continues to spin the magic she so effortlessly weaves in her fiction. I really felt that the poems in Terms and Conditions spoke to me and took me away to different places, watching other lives and forced me to consider the wider picture, and of course, what it is to be human.
My personal favourites were Missing you, What it is that fills us, Body and Relativity which all featured within the last third of the collection. Hershman's writing here is lyrical, emotive and haunting; she experiments with the sound of her words and creates a poetic paradise.
Terms and Conditions is a blissful and beautiful read. Make sure you check it out!
September 10, 2017
As a reader with no tertiary qualifications in language or literature I was, for many years, reluctant to pass comment on poetry. It is a form that requires more than simple reading of words to be appreciated and I feared ridicule for my unscholarly interpretations. These days I read for pleasure making no claim on any ability to knowledgeably parse or critique. Much like music, if it feeds my soul I will rate it.
On this basis, Terms and Conditions is a veritable feast. It offers a literary dégustation to be dipped into and savoured. So many of the offerings left me sated it is a challenge to select just a few for special mention here.
The book opens with ‘Baby’, in which a child is being carried (or are they directing?), gathering data as they travel by train. Baby’s thoughts are on absorbing the now, but they also look forward to what could be with curiosity, hope and anticipation.
In ‘What do we do when the water rises?’, the subject is the behaviour of fire ants, how they survive as a colony – a lesson for humans:
“How do they know
How hard to hold, and when
To let each other go?”
‘Insist on it’ entreats the reader not to give in to the persuasion of others who are older, who believe they know better, perhaps because they still see a child to be schooled. Knowledge and experience require a past. Life is worth exploring in other directions.
As one who eschews pigeonholing I was particularly drawn to ‘No, I do not Tango’. This notes the names people are given by others, labels widely assigned. The narrator will not be owned by such limitations:
“You can call me anything you like. I know my name.”
‘Surplus, 1919’ was inspired by the two million women labelled as such due to the lack of marriageable men after World War I. At the time the women’s worth was often judged by marriage. It was not they who sent the men to die.
“how now to live: alone
Or worse, with parents; how
To earn, with what to occupy
Those hours emptied of expected
Spouse and children.”
‘How to be fully-grown’ explores the stamping out of impropriety in children, the quashing of fun. Adults look on as the adults-in-training enjoy sliding across a brilliantly-shined museum floor on their knees. How long before they cease considering such pleasures as possibilities?
‘Where once Mercury had winged feet’ offers the nostalgia and excitement of a passionate kiss, emotions generated floating above whatever else weighs down the kissed.
This entire work, the author’s debut poetry collection, pulses emotion, speaking softly, powerfully in the silences after reading. The poems explore existence, love and ‘the uncertain business of our daily lives’. There is nothing difficult to understand, although it takes more than these few words to eloquently convey the depth of sensation. The appreciation is in how the reader is made to feel.
On this basis, Terms and Conditions is a veritable feast. It offers a literary dégustation to be dipped into and savoured. So many of the offerings left me sated it is a challenge to select just a few for special mention here.
The book opens with ‘Baby’, in which a child is being carried (or are they directing?), gathering data as they travel by train. Baby’s thoughts are on absorbing the now, but they also look forward to what could be with curiosity, hope and anticipation.
In ‘What do we do when the water rises?’, the subject is the behaviour of fire ants, how they survive as a colony – a lesson for humans:
“How do they know
How hard to hold, and when
To let each other go?”
‘Insist on it’ entreats the reader not to give in to the persuasion of others who are older, who believe they know better, perhaps because they still see a child to be schooled. Knowledge and experience require a past. Life is worth exploring in other directions.
As one who eschews pigeonholing I was particularly drawn to ‘No, I do not Tango’. This notes the names people are given by others, labels widely assigned. The narrator will not be owned by such limitations:
“You can call me anything you like. I know my name.”
‘Surplus, 1919’ was inspired by the two million women labelled as such due to the lack of marriageable men after World War I. At the time the women’s worth was often judged by marriage. It was not they who sent the men to die.
“how now to live: alone
Or worse, with parents; how
To earn, with what to occupy
Those hours emptied of expected
Spouse and children.”
‘How to be fully-grown’ explores the stamping out of impropriety in children, the quashing of fun. Adults look on as the adults-in-training enjoy sliding across a brilliantly-shined museum floor on their knees. How long before they cease considering such pleasures as possibilities?
‘Where once Mercury had winged feet’ offers the nostalgia and excitement of a passionate kiss, emotions generated floating above whatever else weighs down the kissed.
This entire work, the author’s debut poetry collection, pulses emotion, speaking softly, powerfully in the silences after reading. The poems explore existence, love and ‘the uncertain business of our daily lives’. There is nothing difficult to understand, although it takes more than these few words to eloquently convey the depth of sensation. The appreciation is in how the reader is made to feel.
August 9, 2020
In this debut collection only one poem goes to a second page. To me this says Hershman gets to the point and spares the reader unnecessary waffle. If a short poem delivers the message, there's no point in adding more.
You can see the influence of science in her writing and she does reveal some of the influences and sources of her poems. Once you know the influence of Missing You for example and what is missing the dynamic of the poem changes. This collection is whimsical and thought provoking in equal measure without a wasted word.
You can see the influence of science in her writing and she does reveal some of the influences and sources of her poems. Once you know the influence of Missing You for example and what is missing the dynamic of the poem changes. This collection is whimsical and thought provoking in equal measure without a wasted word.
October 20, 2017
These are deft and subtle poems that are often surreal or just plain odd, but with an enviable playfulness and lightness of touch.
December 28, 2017
*gently closes book*
*gently lays down*
*gently weeps*
*tattoos entire collection onto skin*
*gently lays down*
*gently weeps*
*tattoos entire collection onto skin*
July 28, 2017
Tania Hershman’s debut poetry collection is elegantly, economically and carefully written; nothing is superfluous and the strong imagery, lyricism, syntax and metaphorical language work deep within the poems; unpacking meaning and sound with ease. All of these poems are undoubtedly made to be listened to, there is a real worship of language. These poems also yearn and deserve to be seen. Some of the poems’ visual effects provide different layers and emphasize meaning. Hershman plays with the page, nudging out space (or reeling it into block or prose poems), injecting silence, breath and rhythm. We are able to approach these poems from various angles.
The poems are about relationships, overcoming fear, the body and the need for reinterpretation (the liquid woman in the poem ‘Woman in bath’ solidifies only as she steps out of the bath to face the world), but there is also so much more here too. Hershman bounces off scientific method, observation and concepts where certainty and uncertainty hover and battle. Many of these poems are inspired by scientific articles but all of them are rooted in everyday life, experience and emotions.
Although some of the poems deal with heartache and panic, fear they are also hilarious and resistant to definition. Amongst the poems is a poem with an interview to a wind turbine and ‘What is it that fills us’ is about gasometers. There is a palpable sense that Hershman must have had fun playing with the shape and form of some of these poems (see ‘The Bed’ or ‘What we don’t know we do not know’).
Each of these poems is an event; I very much wanted to hug each one to me after reading it. They pull you in the moment and then release their grip; rolling out with a resounding echo. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this collection and I know I will be rereading it regularly.
The poems are about relationships, overcoming fear, the body and the need for reinterpretation (the liquid woman in the poem ‘Woman in bath’ solidifies only as she steps out of the bath to face the world), but there is also so much more here too. Hershman bounces off scientific method, observation and concepts where certainty and uncertainty hover and battle. Many of these poems are inspired by scientific articles but all of them are rooted in everyday life, experience and emotions.
Although some of the poems deal with heartache and panic, fear they are also hilarious and resistant to definition. Amongst the poems is a poem with an interview to a wind turbine and ‘What is it that fills us’ is about gasometers. There is a palpable sense that Hershman must have had fun playing with the shape and form of some of these poems (see ‘The Bed’ or ‘What we don’t know we do not know’).
Each of these poems is an event; I very much wanted to hug each one to me after reading it. They pull you in the moment and then release their grip; rolling out with a resounding echo. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this collection and I know I will be rereading it regularly.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews