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LONTAR #3
LONTAR #3
This third issue of LONTAR presents speculative writing from and about Singapore, the Philippines, Cambodia and Taiwan.
Inside these pages, you’ll find: the evocation of an alternate ancient Cambodia from multiple award-winner Geoff Ryman; an investigative automotive revenge tale from Palanca Grand Prize winner Dean Francis Alfar; the mystery of magically appearing furniture from Taiwanese short fiction wunderkind Sabrina Huang (deftly translated by PEN/Heim grant recipient Jeremy Tiang); an uneasy exploration of marital discord on the road from Manila Critics’ Circle National Book Award winner Nikki Alfar; a quasi-Ballardian take on beach resort culture from Ben Slater; the uniquely Singaporean response to a viral outbreak from JY Yang; and speculative poetry from Anne Carly Abad, Arlene Ang, Tse Hao Guang, Cyril Wong, David Wong Hsien Ming and Daryl Yam.
LONTAR is the world’s only biannual literary journal focusing on Southeast Asian speculative fiction. In this issue, six contributors have won major literary awards in Singapore, Taiwan, USA, UK, and the Philippines.
Inside these pages, you’ll find: the evocation of an alternate ancient Cambodia from multiple award-winner Geoff Ryman; an investigative automotive revenge tale from Palanca Grand Prize winner Dean Francis Alfar; the mystery of magically appearing furniture from Taiwanese short fiction wunderkind Sabrina Huang (deftly translated by PEN/Heim grant recipient Jeremy Tiang); an uneasy exploration of marital discord on the road from Manila Critics’ Circle National Book Award winner Nikki Alfar; a quasi-Ballardian take on beach resort culture from Ben Slater; the uniquely Singaporean response to a viral outbreak from JY Yang; and speculative poetry from Anne Carly Abad, Arlene Ang, Tse Hao Guang, Cyril Wong, David Wong Hsien Ming and Daryl Yam.
LONTAR is the world’s only biannual literary journal focusing on Southeast Asian speculative fiction. In this issue, six contributors have won major literary awards in Singapore, Taiwan, USA, UK, and the Philippines.
- GenresFiction
128 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 2014
25 people want to read
About the author
Jason Erik Lundberg
69 books165 followersJason Erik Lundberg was born in Brooklyn, New York, grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina, and has lived in Singapore since 2007. His latest publications are the novel A Fickle and Restless Weapon (2020), the related novella Diary of One Who Disappeared (2019, recipient of a Creation Grant from the National Arts Council of Singapore), and the "greatest hits" short fiction collection Most Excellent and Lamentable: Selected Stories (2019).
He is also the author of many other books for adults—including Red Dot Irreal (2011), The Alchemy of Happiness (2012), Strange Mammals (2013), and Embracing the Strange (2013); books for children—the bestselling six-book Bo Bo and Cha Cha picture book series (2012–2015) and Carol the Coral (2016); and more than a hundred short stories, articles, and book reviews. His writing has been translated into half a dozen languages, and seen publication in venues such as Mānoa: A Pacific Journal of International Writing, the Raleigh News & Observer, Farrago’s Wainscot, Hot Metal Bridge, Strange Horizons, Subterranean Magazine, The Third Alternative, Electric Velocipede, and many other places. His work has won the POPULAR Readers’ Choice Award, has been shortlisted for the SLF Fountain Award, Brenda L. Smart Award for Short Fiction and SCBWI Crystal Kite Member Choice Award, and was honourably mentioned twice in The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror.
For nearly twelve years, Lundberg was the fiction editor at Epigram Books, where he jump-started the Singaporean publisher's fiction line; many of the over 90 titles he edited there won multiple national awards, and made various year’s best lists. His authors include Boey Kim Cheng, Meihan Boey, Balli Kaur Jaswal, Amanda Lee Koe, Ng Yi-Sheng, Nuraliah Norasid, O Thiam Chin, Jeremy Tiang, Cyril Wong and Daryl Qilin Yam.
In addition, he is the founding editor of LONTAR: The Journal of Southeast Asian Speculative Fiction (2012–2018), series editor for the award-winning biennial Best New Singaporean Short Stories anthology series (est. 2013), editor of Fish Eats Lion Redux (2022) and Fish Eats Lion (2012), and co-editor of A Field Guide to Surreal Botany (2008) and Scattered, Covered, Smothered (2004). From 2005–2008, he facilitated an occasional podcast called Lies and Little Deaths: A Virtual Anthology.
An active member in PEN America and a 2002 graduate of the prestigious Clarion Writers Workshop, Lundberg holds a Master's degree in creative writing from North Carolina State University. Furthermore, he was a 2025 Visiting Writer at the Asia Creative Writing Programme, and a 2023 International Writer-in-Residence at the Toji Cultural Foundation Residency Program in South Korea. He has served as a prose mentor with the Creative Arts Programme and Ceriph Mentorship Programme, and he currently lectures on contemporary publishing, editorial theory & practice, and creative writing at Nanyang Technological University.
He is also the author of many other books for adults—including Red Dot Irreal (2011), The Alchemy of Happiness (2012), Strange Mammals (2013), and Embracing the Strange (2013); books for children—the bestselling six-book Bo Bo and Cha Cha picture book series (2012–2015) and Carol the Coral (2016); and more than a hundred short stories, articles, and book reviews. His writing has been translated into half a dozen languages, and seen publication in venues such as Mānoa: A Pacific Journal of International Writing, the Raleigh News & Observer, Farrago’s Wainscot, Hot Metal Bridge, Strange Horizons, Subterranean Magazine, The Third Alternative, Electric Velocipede, and many other places. His work has won the POPULAR Readers’ Choice Award, has been shortlisted for the SLF Fountain Award, Brenda L. Smart Award for Short Fiction and SCBWI Crystal Kite Member Choice Award, and was honourably mentioned twice in The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror.
For nearly twelve years, Lundberg was the fiction editor at Epigram Books, where he jump-started the Singaporean publisher's fiction line; many of the over 90 titles he edited there won multiple national awards, and made various year’s best lists. His authors include Boey Kim Cheng, Meihan Boey, Balli Kaur Jaswal, Amanda Lee Koe, Ng Yi-Sheng, Nuraliah Norasid, O Thiam Chin, Jeremy Tiang, Cyril Wong and Daryl Qilin Yam.
In addition, he is the founding editor of LONTAR: The Journal of Southeast Asian Speculative Fiction (2012–2018), series editor for the award-winning biennial Best New Singaporean Short Stories anthology series (est. 2013), editor of Fish Eats Lion Redux (2022) and Fish Eats Lion (2012), and co-editor of A Field Guide to Surreal Botany (2008) and Scattered, Covered, Smothered (2004). From 2005–2008, he facilitated an occasional podcast called Lies and Little Deaths: A Virtual Anthology.
An active member in PEN America and a 2002 graduate of the prestigious Clarion Writers Workshop, Lundberg holds a Master's degree in creative writing from North Carolina State University. Furthermore, he was a 2025 Visiting Writer at the Asia Creative Writing Programme, and a 2023 International Writer-in-Residence at the Toji Cultural Foundation Residency Program in South Korea. He has served as a prose mentor with the Creative Arts Programme and Ceriph Mentorship Programme, and he currently lectures on contemporary publishing, editorial theory & practice, and creative writing at Nanyang Technological University.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 23, 2017
Such a captivating read -- however, there is a mixed bag in there. You'll get literary and then you'll get the sensational adventure.
April 3, 2020
Review lifted from my instagram @kefuwa
So this is LONTAR #3 which is a South-East-Asian journal of speculative fiction & poetry. There a total of 10 of these available out there at this moment (I think 10 was the last issue) & they feature speculative fiction based in South East Asia. I finished issues 1 and 2 last year and I guess will go on to issue 4 after this. Plan to get all issues in ebook form eventually!
⚜️
I found myself more engaged with the selections in this volume as opposed to the prev two - there are some really good stories to read here! One even felt like a Black Mirror episode! I can’t comment on the poetry though as I skipped them all (did the same with prev volumes) sorry - speculative poetry is kinda not my thing - maybe some day I’ll give it a whirl.
⚜️
Book 4 of 2020 #kefuwa2020
First finished: 25mar2020
Source: weightlessbooks.com
So this is LONTAR #3 which is a South-East-Asian journal of speculative fiction & poetry. There a total of 10 of these available out there at this moment (I think 10 was the last issue) & they feature speculative fiction based in South East Asia. I finished issues 1 and 2 last year and I guess will go on to issue 4 after this. Plan to get all issues in ebook form eventually!
⚜️
I found myself more engaged with the selections in this volume as opposed to the prev two - there are some really good stories to read here! One even felt like a Black Mirror episode! I can’t comment on the poetry though as I skipped them all (did the same with prev volumes) sorry - speculative poetry is kinda not my thing - maybe some day I’ll give it a whirl.
⚜️
Book 4 of 2020 #kefuwa2020
First finished: 25mar2020
Source: weightlessbooks.com
October 3, 2025
A solid collection of short stories and poems by various SEA writers was a gem. I don’t care much for poetry but the short stories gave an of eerie, supernatural vibe which was kind of weirdly enjoyable.
This anthology was put together back in 2014 yet some stories like ‘Mother’s Day’ stood out as it imagined what it would be like to live through a pandemic… which we all did in 2020-2022! I think my favorite story was ‘Resort Time’ because it felt like a White Lotus + Black Mirror episode: creepy and complete.
This anthology was put together back in 2014 yet some stories like ‘Mother’s Day’ stood out as it imagined what it would be like to live through a pandemic… which we all did in 2020-2022! I think my favorite story was ‘Resort Time’ because it felt like a White Lotus + Black Mirror episode: creepy and complete.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews