Our Moral Compass
Giving survivors back their stories. In their own words.
Write Where We Belong Press was founded on a simple premise: healing requires truth, and we do not break free by sanitizing what has happened to us. That premise governs how we publish.
Survivors’ words are not raw material for other people’s interpretation. They are testimony, philosophy, and record. Our stories stand on their own; they do not require translation, softening, or gatekeeping from anyone. Silencing is itself a form of violence, and so is rewriting someone’s account of her own life so that it reads more comfortably to others.
We publish accordingly.
Your words stay your words. We work with you to edit for spelling, punctuation, and clarity when you ask us to, and with your explicit permission and approval. We do not paraphrase, condense, reframe, or “clean up” a survivor’s account to suit a narrative, a tone, or a market. If a piece runs hot, it runs hot.
You see everything before it is printed. Every author approves the final text of their own work, the title it appears under, and any introduction, caption, or contextual material placed alongside it. Nothing attributed to you is published without your sign-off.
You decide how you are named. Full name, first name, initials, pseudonym, or anonymity is the author’s choice, honoured in writing, and not revisited without their consent.
You keep your copyright. Our authors retain copyright in their work. We publish it; we do not own it.
You may withdraw. An author may withdraw a piece at any point before it goes to print, without explanation.
Nothing about us without us. Survivors and surviving family members shape every anthology, book, and publication we produce, from the call for submissions to the final proof.
These are not aspirations. They are the terms on which we work, and the standard we hold ourselves to.
If a publishing agreement you are offered elsewhere does not meet them, you are entitled to ask why.
