Dear Readers,
Welcome to October 2023 issue of The Mean Journal by MeanPepperVine. As always, we extend a big thank you and warm hugs to our readers, and to all the writers who send in your works to us.
The past few months have been a period of tough, albeit exciting transition for us as a team – moving to a new place, trying to find our feet in an alien place, finding love and joy in unexpected places, a few broken promises to ourselves and to our readers…it has been a period of pause, of deliberate silence, long solitary nature walks, regrouping, reassembling, floating to a state of lightness.
“I want to think again of dangerous and noble things.
I want to be light and frolicsome.
I want to be improbable beautiful and afraid of nothing,
as though I had wings.”
― Mary Oliver, Owls and Other Fantasies: Poems and Essays
October 2023 Issue features two flash fiction, three short stories and two photo essays/travelogues. We hope you enjoy these remarkable stories and essays from the strong and assured literary voices of the Subcontinent that are featured in this issue. It has been an absolute privilege to work with these huge talents, and we look forward to the future of The Mean Journal, and hope it will continue to grow with our writers and become one of the best literary magazines in India. We love that writers & artists keep returning to us to pitch their story/essay ideas, and to find a home for their precious stories and narratives.
Our Submissions are open through the year. Head to our Submissions Page to know more about collaborating with us.
We hope this issue inspires you in some way. Please continue to send in your works and ideas to us. Keep creating!
Ruati Chhangte | Founder Editor, The Mean Journal
Find The Mean Journal on Instagram @MeanPepperVine