Wishbone Words

Dear Wishbone readers,

Welcome to the launch of our blog! We will be posting entries regularly, starting in July to celebrate Disability Pride Month. We hope to bring a varied mix of content from advice and recommendations and personal essays with the aim of advocating for and celebrating disability, chronic illness, and neurodiversity. Plus, we hope to welcome guest bloggers and interviews!

Launching a blog has been an idea the team has had for so long and to see it manifested finally on our newly designed website is such a full circle moment for us. First, I would like to acknowledge our new team member, Maggie, for bringing about a more accessible, enjoyable website for our readers. Creating a universally accommodating and thoughtful experience is our top-most priority.

For our first post, I’d like to reintroduce myself as the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Wishbone Words and give you a rundown of our journey so far! I’m Hollie Bardgett (formerly Warren). The idea for Wishbone was brought about in 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic. In my country of England and due to my health, I was asked to shield. This meant I couldn’t leave the house for walks – the furthest I could go was to my back door and garden for fresh air.

An empty street in the UK during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Photo by Dan Burton on Unsplash

This had a massive impact on me mentally and I felt a real sense of disconnection from myself and my hobbies, such as writing. I was in my final year of studying Creative Writing and the looming sense of “What’s next?” was very much at the forefront of my mind. Not only am I physically disabled, a scoliosis survivor, and living with a genetic disorder called Osteogenesis Imperfecta (OI), but I am also partially sighted and dealing with the complex relationship between remaining safe in a body with limited mobility with limited vision. Employment was not an easy ambition for me, and many failed attempts of making something of myself resulted in me feeling utterly useless and my existence seemed to lack not only meaning, but enjoyment.

How could I make an impact, raise awareness for the disabled experience and do it all in a way that was feasible for me to do from hospital, my bed or even during a flare-up? My initial idea was creating a magazine where I interviewed and accepted submissions from other people living with Osteogenesis Imperfecta, a condition rarely represented or spoken about in mainstream media. I started the brainstorming process and came up with the name Wishbone Words, since a wishbone is the symbol for Osteogenesis Imperfecta. I asked some friends within the OI community their thoughts and they told me to go for it, so I created an Instagram account starting with zero followers and zero clue what I was doing.

The original Wishbone Words logo.

It was only upon the creation of our social media presence that I started to make connections with people who have conditions of all kinds. Being educated on a vast range of rare conditions and learning the exceptional stories people had, my ethos changed. From then on, Wishbone was to be an inclusive and accurate representation of the disabled experience, which is a broad and beautiful spectrum.

Issue 1 was like the first pancake you make before you finally make the good batch — it featured so much talent but it was my own skills that required maturation. I went from barely being able to make a PowerPoint presentation to crafting an entire literary magazine within weeks, and though I knew I wasn’t perfect, I felt that the potential was there… I guess I was right! Wishbone has welcomed creators from around the world and has been the proud home of hundreds of incredible submissions.

Issue 1 of Wishbone Words, published in June 2021.

Our team has grown tremendously since we began — in August 2022 (Issue 8) Noelle (Managing Editor) joined the team. Together, we built a team of chronically ill, neurodiverse, and disabled volunteers and we are proud to offer a more compassionate service. Our team strives to make a safer, more diverse and professional experience from submission to editing and all the way through to publication.

Three years into our journey, Wishbone has matured into a literary magazine we are proud of. As a non-profit, we are able to direct any funds made into improving our website and magazine issues, as well as continue to adapt to the ever-changing needs of those who support and follow us. You may have noticed we have reduced our number of issues per year – we will release issues twice yearly in the months of May and November. Please keep an eye on our social media channels as well as our website when our submission periods open.

Wishbone Words covers through the years.

Thank you for reading our first entry and we hope you’ll join us in our new venture, if you haven’t yet caught up, Issue 13 is available now!

Sending love and spoons,
Hollie

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