On October 1st 2021, I was in a car accident in which I sustained numerous life-altering injuries. During my time in recovery, I was forced to re-evaluate my career and life choices – for seventeen years, I’d worked as a teacher and middle-manager in secondary schools, but now, I was having to find a new path. I’d been writing and performing across the North-West for a year, and knew that whatever I did next would need to involve poetry.

Whilst in the hospital, I wrote alongside a number of writers from across the poetry scene, and produced my first pamphlet, The Poet Who Broke Her Back. Seeing how this was received was encouraging, and led me to thinking about how much I enjoyed the process of writing, designing, producing and marketing my own collection. 

The rest, as the cliché goes, is history.

Our original name was Bent Key Publishing. I chose this after finding my front door key a few weeks after the accident – it had been in my pocket and was almost bent in two, despite being made of solid metal. Somehow, my body had escaped the same fate. Bent Key’s name and logo served as a reminder – that when life gives you lemons, you can either make lemonade or let them rot. I chose to make the lemonade. This approach and ethos was tested in 2023, when our name was co-opted, and subsequently fast-tracked to trademark, by a right-wing media outlet with views and supporters that posed a danger to our artists. Faced with legal action and mounting right-wing ire, we had no choice but to protect our peace and change the name that I held so dear to me. 

Written Off is just as symbolic a choice. After the crash, I felt written off – I’d lost my career – and that was after my car and keys had been written off, too. I believe that too many of us are written off by a society that seeks to invalidate us – and yet we carry on, forever intrepid. Our writers have all, at some point in their lives, felt this way. This name takes that label and recalibrates its meaning. We may have been written off, but write-offs we are absolutely not.

Our ethos is to ensure that all talent is offered opportunity and that nobody with passion and a good manuscript is priced out of writing their story. We champion neurodiverse artists and writers from other marginalised groups, particularly those who find traditional publishing difficult to access due to dyslexia or other needs.

In April 2022 we were privileged to be shortlisted as one of only four independent publishing houses in the UK for a Saboteur Award for Most Innovative Publisher, despite only being operational since January 2022. This was an incredible achievement; one that we did not expect but are very proud to speak about – especially as it’s voted for by our peers. We then found ourselves shortlisted again in 2023 – and this time, we won an award for Best Anthology, and one of our writers took the award for Best Short Story Collection. Massive love to everyone who chose to give their vote to us for these accolades.

Due to an incredible level of demand, we’re currently closed for submissions. Whilst we’d love to publish more, we simply cannot at this time – but if you have an interest in what we do here and are happy to wait, please get in touch to say hello. We are always looking to build connections.

With love,

Rebecca Kenny, Founder

WOHQ x