diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 7160052..6830bf9 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ build-backend = "maturin"
 
 [project]
 name = "slingshot-microservice"
-version = "0.1.3"
+version = "0.1.4"
 description = "Opinionated Rust framework for queue-driven microservices"
 license = { text = "MIT" }
 requires-python = ">=3.8"
diff --git a/slingshot_microservice/typing.py b/slingshot_microservice/typing.py
index 26cd2c9..2ff2b90 100644
--- a/slingshot_microservice/typing.py
+++ b/slingshot_microservice/typing.py
@@ -15,7 +15,12 @@ class ReadFileFn(Protocol):
 
 
 class WriteFileFn(Protocol):
-    def __call__(self, key: str, id: int) -> BinaryIO: ...
+    def __call__(self, key: str, id: int) -> "WriteHandle": ...
+
+
+class WriteHandle(Protocol):
+    def write(self, data: bytes | str) -> int: ...
+    def flush(self) -> None: ...
 
 
 class ProcessFn(Protocol):
@@ -31,6 +36,7 @@ class ProcessFn(Protocol):
 __all__ = [
     "CaseVariable",
     "ReadFileFn",
+    "WriteHandle",
     "WriteFileFn",
     "ProcessFn",
 ]
diff --git a/src/lib.rs b/src/lib.rs
index ea6219d..3d97764 100644
--- a/src/lib.rs
+++ b/src/lib.rs
@@ -802,14 +802,23 @@ struct PyWriteHandle {
 #[cfg(feature = "python")]
 #[pymethods]
 impl PyWriteHandle {
-	fn write(&self, data: &[u8]) -> PyResult<usize> {
+	fn write(&self, data: &Bound<'_, PyAny>) -> PyResult<usize> {
+		let (buffer, chars_written) = if let Ok(bytes) = data.extract::<Vec<u8>>() {
+			(bytes, None)
+		} else if let Ok(text) = data.extract::<String>() {
+			let char_count = text.chars().count();
+			(text.into_bytes(), Some(char_count))
+		} else {
+			return Err(PyTypeError::new_err("write() argument must be bytes or str"));
+		};
+
 		let mut file = self
 			.file
 			.lock()
 			.map_err(|e| PyRuntimeError::new_err(format!("write lock poisoned: {}", e)))?;
-		file.write_all(data)
+		file.write_all(&buffer)
 			.map_err(|e| PyRuntimeError::new_err(e.to_string()))?;
-		Ok(data.len())
+		Ok(chars_written.unwrap_or(buffer.len()))
 	}
 
 	fn flush(&self) -> PyResult<()> {