The Kenwood literary magazine continues to grow with impressive art and writing collections for the fourth year in a row. It was restarted back in the 2018-2019 school year by Ms. Barr and Ms. Glenn as a 27 page publication with just fifteen writers and artists.

Ms. Joan Cooper, published poet and fiction writer, joined the Kenwood writing team the following school year and began overseeing the production of the magazine while Barr took on the production of the school yearbook and Glenn oversaw the writers here on Eye of the Bluebird. Over the course of the next three school years, despite the pandemic, the magazine now upon it’s fourth release since Cooper, Barr, and Glenn began working with Kenwood writers is a 100 page publication, featuring 51 writers and artists!

Ms. Cooper’s editor’s note of the magazine states,

This school year has been a challenge. Though primed with the joy of returning to the school building, we were still hidden by masks. We were eager to hear each other out, but shy away from a long time by ourselves. Many were reeling from private grief due to illness and loss. We have been busy recapturing a new normal and learning how to be together again.

This anthology comes out of a year of challenges and presents our students’ uncomfortable, hidden, and open experiences and emotions. In response, we tried poetry, wrote rants, conjured stories right out  of the headlines, and dabbled in fan fiction. The artwork included is a sampling of the phenomenal pieces from our stellar art program. Many thanks to the teachers who offered students creative approaches to the social-emotional whirlwind of returning to in person teaching.

You can check out the full digital copy of this year’s Bluebird Voice here.

Interested student writers can learn more about publication opportunities here at Kenwood by seeing Ms. Glenn, Ms. Cooper, or Ms. Barr in the English wing. We look forward to working with returning and new writers next school year.