What do you think?
Rate this book
LONTAR #5
LONTAR #5
This fifth issue of LONTAR presents speculative writing from and about Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia, Cambodia, Indonesia and Thailand.
Inside these pages, you’ll find: an ancient and fatal karmic reunion in Jakarta by award-winner Gord Sellar; the true origin of the Merlion by Singapore Literature Prize winner Amanda Lee Koe; a young man's literal transformation into an island by award-winner Ng Yi-Sheng; a far-future Malaysian fairy tale by Kawika Guillermo; a gentle aquatic apocalypse from novelist Erica Verrillo; an enlightening visit with a forest monk in northern Thailand by Italian journalist Massimo Morello; a comic on the price of technological hubris by Benjamin Chee; and speculative poetry from Tania De Rozario, Joel Donato Jacob, Lee Jing-Jing, Daryl WJ Lim, Christina Sng and Sokunthary Svay.
LONTAR is the world’s only biannual literary journal focusing on Southeast Asian speculative fiction.
Inside these pages, you’ll find: an ancient and fatal karmic reunion in Jakarta by award-winner Gord Sellar; the true origin of the Merlion by Singapore Literature Prize winner Amanda Lee Koe; a young man's literal transformation into an island by award-winner Ng Yi-Sheng; a far-future Malaysian fairy tale by Kawika Guillermo; a gentle aquatic apocalypse from novelist Erica Verrillo; an enlightening visit with a forest monk in northern Thailand by Italian journalist Massimo Morello; a comic on the price of technological hubris by Benjamin Chee; and speculative poetry from Tania De Rozario, Joel Donato Jacob, Lee Jing-Jing, Daryl WJ Lim, Christina Sng and Sokunthary Svay.
LONTAR is the world’s only biannual literary journal focusing on Southeast Asian speculative fiction.
112 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 2015
1 person is currently reading
40 people want to read
About the author
Jason Erik Lundberg
68 books164 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.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
November 11, 2015
Issue number five was released earlier this month, and given my recent forays into Indonesian literature I thought a read and a review of other writers from the Southeast Asian region could be in order, using the publication as a starting point to learning a little more about writers on the fringe and possibly exploring some of their other works in a little more detail at some later stage.
Issue number five contains works by thirteen writers, five short stories, six poets, one nonfiction piece and a single “sequential art” (Graphic art) entry. The publication weighs in at 104 pages and opens with an editorial talking about the male/female representation in their publication to date, with women writers constituting 41% of the works published to date. An interesting aside is that for their unsolicited submissions female writers make up 46% up the works received so at least one journal out there is ensuring a balanced approach!
The fiction kicks off with a short story “No Man Is” by Singapore poet, fictionist, playwright, journalist and activist Ng Yi-Sheng. It is the story of a young man who decides to become an island – literally. He floats in the ocean attempting to find a place to remain, to grown, take root, but like all islands he is plundered and corrupted. A tale of identity with an environmental message this mixes folklore and fantasy to open a world of thought about our connection to the land we walk on.
The non-fiction entry is “Let The Stupid Ones Die” by Massimo Morello an Italian Thai journalist, who travels to the Thailand/Laos border and lives with a Buddhist monk, a retreat of sorts. However instead of the usual romantic tales we normally read about such journeys, we have the reality of living simply, the tepid water, the dirty surroundings, the rats, and the fear of living in the rainforest:
The positive aspect of this experience, as on certain trips to the rainforest earlier in my life, is the progressive disappearance of individual needs. A kind of psychophysical Occam’s Razor. According to the 14th century Franciscan friar by the same name, the simplest explanation to a problem is usually the correct one, so more complex and less probable hypotheses can be eliminated. This reducing down to the essentials applies to one’s lifestyle – if we eliminate everything but the indispensable, the body no longer feels the need for anything else. According to the venerable monk – and especially according to Buddha – this means closing the six doors of suffering, i.e. the five senses plus the mind. The doors lead to desire, which should be eliminated in order to be free from dukkha, or suffering. But if you begin to analyse the Four Noble Truths at the heart of Dharma, Buddha law and teaching, things get too complicated. Let’s just get back to the Razor.
This is a Westerner’s view of the East, and the East feeding off of the Westerner’s view – an interesting take on what we normally see as a romantic retreat with a Buddhist monk.
For a full review go to http://messybooker.blogspot.com.au/20...
Issue number five contains works by thirteen writers, five short stories, six poets, one nonfiction piece and a single “sequential art” (Graphic art) entry. The publication weighs in at 104 pages and opens with an editorial talking about the male/female representation in their publication to date, with women writers constituting 41% of the works published to date. An interesting aside is that for their unsolicited submissions female writers make up 46% up the works received so at least one journal out there is ensuring a balanced approach!
The fiction kicks off with a short story “No Man Is” by Singapore poet, fictionist, playwright, journalist and activist Ng Yi-Sheng. It is the story of a young man who decides to become an island – literally. He floats in the ocean attempting to find a place to remain, to grown, take root, but like all islands he is plundered and corrupted. A tale of identity with an environmental message this mixes folklore and fantasy to open a world of thought about our connection to the land we walk on.
The non-fiction entry is “Let The Stupid Ones Die” by Massimo Morello an Italian Thai journalist, who travels to the Thailand/Laos border and lives with a Buddhist monk, a retreat of sorts. However instead of the usual romantic tales we normally read about such journeys, we have the reality of living simply, the tepid water, the dirty surroundings, the rats, and the fear of living in the rainforest:
The positive aspect of this experience, as on certain trips to the rainforest earlier in my life, is the progressive disappearance of individual needs. A kind of psychophysical Occam’s Razor. According to the 14th century Franciscan friar by the same name, the simplest explanation to a problem is usually the correct one, so more complex and less probable hypotheses can be eliminated. This reducing down to the essentials applies to one’s lifestyle – if we eliminate everything but the indispensable, the body no longer feels the need for anything else. According to the venerable monk – and especially according to Buddha – this means closing the six doors of suffering, i.e. the five senses plus the mind. The doors lead to desire, which should be eliminated in order to be free from dukkha, or suffering. But if you begin to analyse the Four Noble Truths at the heart of Dharma, Buddha law and teaching, things get too complicated. Let’s just get back to the Razor.
This is a Westerner’s view of the East, and the East feeding off of the Westerner’s view – an interesting take on what we normally see as a romantic retreat with a Buddhist monk.
For a full review go to http://messybooker.blogspot.com.au/20...
Displaying 1 of 1 review