The Pine Cone Review is a literary magazine that believes the best things in life are free. It is a no-fee, no-pay market. It publishes issues that are freely accessible to anyone.
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Origin Story
Amitava Nag’s musings on the brown being in his set of 15 poems titled ‘A Brown Sky’, published here set the osmosis of ideas in motion. It pricked the conscience. Questions tumbled out of the closet.
What are the crevices of brownness do i/we inhabit in? What is brownness in the socio-cultural arena? Is it only the colour of skin that demarcates the brown from white, black and yellow social selves and beings? Is it more complex than mere surface tensions? If yes, then in what ways? If no, then why not?
Armed with such an arsenal of questions, the search for an apt metaphor began. It stopped at the metaphor that the pine cone houses.
A pine cone is considered to be a symbol associated with fertility, enlightenment and even the ‘pine’al gland that sits at the centre of the brain. However, the aspect of the pine cone that appealed to this brown soul is its androgynous nature and the necessity to pollinate with the opposite gender cones of other pine trees, although, a pine tree appears to be self-sufficient with simultaneous production of both male and female pine cones.
The possibility of interaction beyond the limits of ‘home’ assigned to the metaphor of pine cone seemed to be the essence of a discussion on brownness and brown identity. The Pine Cone Review does not believe that only brown-skinned individuals can articulate the nuances of brownness and/or brown identity. In fact, it may be the case that a ‘brown’ individual feels nothing brown about his existence when placed in a ‘brown’ milieu.
The Pine Cone Review however, is not aimed at exclusivity. Brown selves and the similes and metaphors of brown existence across the world can be different depending on the space and the speaker.
The Pine Cone Review, like the pine tree, does not believe that in-group behaviour sustains.
It does not matter which colour of skin you have, as long as you let your creative juices flow. We want to hear your creativity speak, beyond the limitations of this physical existence. The Pine Cone Review wishes to hear opinions, not only about brown existence. We look forward to visions of what its absence means as well. If you believe that a conversation about the same is not worthy, we are also open to listening to your opinion.
In our search for exceptional voices in writing, we keep our doors open for new and experimental writing, as much as for, traditional forms. We love exceptional lyric poetry as much as we love prose poems, found poems and other experimental forms. We are stoked by traditional and experimental personal essays and narrative essays alike. We adore experimental fiction as well as traditional story arcs.
The Pine Cone Review is excited to be on this journey of ideas.
Meet the Team
(click for more information on the Team Pine Cone Review)
The Pine Cone Review 