After much discussion with my editors, and many sleepless nights in thought, I have decided to end the publication of LONTAR after the release of issue #10 in April 2018.
It’ll have taken up six years of my life by that point, and even as supremely proud as I am of what we’ve accomplished with this journal, it’s getting harder and harder to sustain my enthusiasm for it. It takes up a lot of time and mental energy, which could be applied to my own writing (which has suffered greatly in the last few years). Ten issues is a solid run for a project that didn’t exist in any form when I started it. And I want to say a very heartfelt thank-you to LONTAR’s staff, contributors and readers, for making it such a phenomenal publication.
That said, LONTAR is not going away completely. In print form, there are already plans for a retrospective anthology, as well as a literary folio in association with We Are a Website. In addition, I’ve been in talks about transitioning LONTAR into something more resembling a community organisation focused on outreach and recognition (including the establishment of an annual award). And for the first time in almost twenty years, I’ll be attending WorldCon this August in Helsinki, and moderating a panel on “Surreal Worlds of Southeast Asia”.
Issue #9 has been finalised, and will be released in October of this year. We’ll have part two of Dean Francis Alfar’s novel Salamanca, as well as fiction by Aliette de Bodard, Victor Fernando R. Ocampo, Philip Holden, KH Lim and Sean Jones, and poetry by Mariel Annarose Nicole Alonzo, Melvin Chen, Russ Hoe, DA Xiaolin Spires, Inez Tan and Lakan Umali.
Also, I want to end LONTAR with a bang; L10 will be a double-sized issue (around 70,000 words) and I want to invite you all to submit. I’ll be accepting submissions until 15 September 2017, and I would love to fill up our final issue with your stories, poems, essays and comics. This is your last chance to be included in the current incarnation of LONTAR, so please send me your very best.
Many thanks for joining me on this literary journey. Let’s send the journal off in style, and look forward to what LONTAR will turn into in the future.
Jason Erik Lundberg
Founding Editor
LONTAR 
I’m sorry to hear that the publication will be ending, but glad there has been a place where SE Asian voices and topics were highlighted for so many years– and also very happy to hear there are more opportunities (anthology, community organization, etc.) coming up. Looking forward to your writing, as well. Please have a great time at WorldCon!
Thanks so much, DA! I’m glad that we’ve had a positive impact, and that we’ll be including your poetry in L9. 🙂
Just found your journal online. If I can get a story of mine done in time – it isn’t yet written – I’ll certainly take a stab at it. At the cost per single issue, I don’t know if I can order all the back issues by then (I want to). Are you planning to continue to sell the back issues for a time, after that issue comes out?
Yep, we’ll continue to sell back issues even after LONTAR ceases publication. They’ll still be available through all the venues mentioned at the top of the Issues page.
Great! We’re in the process of orchestrating a move from Oregon to Wisconsin and if I bought all the back issues right now…I’m not sure I’d live long enough to read them.
Well, that all depends on how quickly you can read. 🙂