What’s in a name?
The Bluebird Word. A bit of alliteration, a snippet of rhyme. An adventure with flying friends and nontraditional tales. Like the bluebird who flashes in short takes across our paths, so too should the poems, essays and stories that fill these pages. Precious, delicate, and sometimes fleeting. That is the writing you will find on The Bluebird Word.
Why flash?
The Bluebird Word believes brevity in writing brings purpose. We are looking for flash writing (fiction and nonfiction) under 1,000 words and poems to capture short takes on life. This online journal’s space encourages slowing down, focusing on each word’s breath, and drawing in a story’s essence. Flash pops on the page. Poems pack punches. Let them reside side by side in this creative digital suitcase.
Who’s behind this?
The Bluebird Word launched in February 2022 as an online literary journal with aspiring and emerging writers in mind. Your founder & editor MK Keffer holds an MBA, an MFA, and is a writer like you. She has published poetry, flash nonfiction essays, and short story fiction online and in print.
A word about our masthead logo
In November 2025, we asked newsletter subscribers to choose a new logo (from four choices) for The Bluebird Word. The current masthead now displays a clean, black and white logo that highlights the journal’s name in upper and lower case to emphasize its everyday appeal and natural grace. In a nod to the journal’s appreciation for nature, wildlife, and the outdoors, a bluebird introduces the text on the left as it peers across the letters—as if reading words on a page—and is perched with delightful purpose and alertness on a branch. The tagline “an online literary journal” uses cursive text for a down-to-earth feel and its “l” letters reach up to touch the bottom edges of the journal’s name with light and gentle intention, just as the poems and flash pieces do within its online pages.
How can you join this community?
If you would like to be part of this community of writers on The Bluebird Word, please review some of the journal’s past writing and review our Submission Guidelines. We look forward to receiving your work.
For now, thank you for reading. And thank you for being here.
