Congratulations to all of the announced authors for Philippine Speculative Fiction X (Vol. 10), including LONTAR contributors Victor Fernando R. Ocampo (L2, L6), Eliza Victoria (L4) and Kate Osias (L1, L4); the anthology is edited by Dean Francis Alfar (L3) and Nikki Alfar (L3), and looks to be an especially strong volume in an already impressive annual series.

The full table of contents is as follows:

A Long Walk Home – Alexander M. Osias
A Report – Sarge Lacuesta
A Small Hope – Gabriela Lee
For Sale: Big Ass Sword – Kenneth G. Yu
Children of the Stars – Francis Gabriel Concepcion
Fisher of Men – Razel Tomacder
Hunger – Lakan Umali
IT Girl – AJ Elicaño
Lamat – Noel Tio
Marvin and the Jinni – Raymund Reyes
Mechanical Failures – Jose Elvin Bueno
Mene, Thecel, Phares – Victor Fernando R. Ocampo
Night Predators – Joseph Montecillo
Oblation – Richard Calayeg Cornelio
Santos de Sampaguitas – Alyssa Wong
Soulless – EK Gonzales
The Dollmaker – Joel Pablo Salud
The Last God of Cavite – Andrew Drilon
The Owl and the Hoopoe – Renz Torres
The Run to Grand Maharlika Station – Vincent Michael Simbulan
The Target – Eliza Victoria
Thunderstorm – Cyan Abad-Jugo
When the Gods Left – Kate Osias

To celebrate the release of LONTAR #4*, we thought it would be a good idea to pimp the latest non-LONTAR publications by our amazing contributors.

1. Paolo Bacigalupi (L1, L4) has just released his seventh book, The Water Knife, published by Knopf, which is also his second novel for adults after The Windup Girl. It’s already received rave reviews from the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, National Public Radio and others.

2. Zen Cho (L1) has a highly-anticipated historical fantasy novel coming out with Ace/Roc (US) and Pan Macmillan (UK and Commonwealth) in September, called Sorcerer to the Crown. The book has already been praised by Naomi Novik, Charles Stross, Ann Leckie, Justine Larbalestier and Aliette de Bodard.

3. Kate Osias (L1, L4) has a new children’s book called The Triangle Man and the Flightless Diwata from CANVAS, and a story in the forthcoming anthology The SEA Is Ours: Tales of Steampunk Southeast Asia called “The Unmaking of the Cuadro Amoroso“.

4. JY Yang (L3) has three short stories available: “A Sister’s Weight in Stone” in Apex Magazine, “Red is the Color of Mother Dirt” in Athena’s Daughters, Vol. 2, and “RE (For CEO’s Approval) Text for 10th anniversary exhibition for Operation Springclean” in Bahamut Journal no. 1. She also has two flash fiction pieces out: “Cold Hands and the Smell of Salt” in Daily Science Fiction, and “Letter From an Artist to a Thousand Future Versions of Her Wife” in the Queers Destroy Science Fiction! special issue of Lightspeed Magazine.

5. Shelly Bryant (L2) has a new poetry collection called Pine the Passing, published by Alban Lake.

6. Joses Ho (L4) has a flash fiction piece called “Glow” at LabLit.

7. Desmond Kon Zhicheng-Mingdé (L4) has authored a new poetry collection, The Wrong/Wrung Side of Love, jointly published by Glass Lyre Press and Squircle Line Press. His poetry and fiction have recently appeared in The Bend, Drunken Boat, Esquire (Singapore), The Missing Slate, Singapore Poetry, as well as the 30/30 Project from Tupelo Press. He has an essay and interview forthcoming in Jacket2, and his responses to the Proust Questionnaire will appear in the next issue of QLRS. As Poetry Editor at Kitaab.org, Desmond also runs the Lounge Chair Interview Series. Forthcoming from Ethos Books is his hybrid work, Babel Via Negativa, to be launched at the 2015 Singapore Writers Festival; also be launched at the festival is Eye/Feel/Write, a limited edition anthology edited by Desmond of ekphrastic texts written by 20 distinguished writers, in response to artworks exhibited at the Singapore Art Museum and National Gallery Singapore.

8. Daryl Yam (L2, L3) has “Thing Language” in QLRS 14:2, and “The Poems of Horvalla” in the forthcoming anthology In Transit edited by Yu-Mei Balasingamchow and Zhang Ruihe. He was also the guest prose editor for Cha: An Asian Literary Journal issue 28. His poetry is also out: “Everybody’s Got To Learn Sometime” at The Substation Love Letters Project (2014/2015), and “Evening Poems” forthcoming in Of Zoos issue 4.1.

9. Jerrold Yam (L2, L4) has a new poetry collection called Intruder, published by Ethos Books.

10. Paolo Chikiamco (L1) has a story in The SEA Is Ours called “Between Severed Souls”. He’s also regularly updating the site of comic studio Studio Salimbal.

11. Jeremy Tiang (L3 translator) has two stories out: “Meatpacking” in Drunken Boat no. 21 Union Folio, and “Beijing Hospital” in Asia Literary Review. His translation of Yu Qiuyu’s The Book of Mountains and Rivers will be released later this year by CN Times Books.

12. Ng Yi-Sheng (L4) also has a story in the anthology In Transit, called “Between Flights”.

* As a reminder, the print version of LONTAR #4 ($14.90 SGD) is available directly from Epigram Books, and at Books Kinokuniya and Select Books; the electronic version (ePub or Mobi: $2.99 USD) is up at Weightless Books, where you can also get a one-year subscription!

Presenting the cover for LONTAR issue #4!

We’re sad to be no longer be working with Sarah and Schooling on the art direction, but our in-house designer Yong Wen Yeu has done an excellent job continuing the retro-futuristic feel of our cover art that has thus far made LONTAR such a distinctive-looking literary journal.

We’re sending the issue to the printer this week, so it should be available in late May in bookstores all over Singapore, on the Epigram Books website, and as an ebook through Weightless Books. Yet another issue that I’m incredibly proud of, and I can’t wait for y’all to see it too!

I am happy to announce that the contents of LONTAR issue #4 have been finalised! This fourth issue of LONTAR presents speculative writing from and about Singapore, the Philippines, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia and Thailand. Inside these pages, you’ll find:

• the harsh realities of living as a refugee within a calorie-based economy by acclaimed award-winner Paolo Bacigalupi;
• the uneasy combination of domestic troubles and virtual reality from Palanca Prize winner Kate Osias;
• the unexpected and complete disappearance of Singapore itself from Singapore Literature Prize winner Ng Yi-Sheng;
• a surreal trip through alternate worlds from Philippines Free Press Literary Prize winner Eliza Victoria;
• an eerie meeting with chanteuse Faye Wong during a Malaysian holiday from Andrew Cheah;
• and speculative poetry from Michael Gray, Joses Ho, Desmond Kon Zhicheng-Mingdé, Cyril Wong and Jerrold Yam.

LONTAR is the world’s only biannual literary journal focusing on Southeast Asian speculative fiction. In this issue, seven contributors have won major literary awards in Singapore, USA, UK, Japan and the Philippines. The issue is scheduled for April 2015. Also, if you couldn’t guess from the description above, the novelette from Paolo Bacigalupi is “Yellow Card Man,” which was originally published in the December 2006 issue of Asimov’s Science Fiction, and was a finalist for the Hugo Award; the story serves as a prequel to his celebrated debut novel The Windup Girl, and has now been updated in this version so that it is consistent with the characters and events in the novel. Poetry Editor Kristine Ong Muslim and I are now reading for issue #5, to be released in Autumn 2015, so if you want your work to be considered, send it to us via the Submittable portal. If you’re still waiting for a reply on your submission, please be patient and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can.