This 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 by Palanca Prize winner Kate Osias;
• the unexpected and complete disappearance of Singapore itself by Singapore Literature Prize winner Ng Yi-Sheng;
• a surreal trip through alternate worlds by Philippines Free Press Literary Prize winner Eliza Victoria;
• an eerie meeting with chanteuse Faye Wong during a Malaysian holiday by Andrew Cheah;
• and speculative poetry by 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.

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Fiction

Fade
   Eliza Victoria

A Century of Loneliness
   Andrew Cheah

The Tango
   Kate Osias

No Other City
   Ng Yi-Sheng

Yellow Card Man* [READ]
   Paolo Bacigalupi

 

Poetry

Childhood Dissertation
   Jerrold Yam

curiosa :: oddities
   Desmond Kon Zhicheng-Mingdé

Inside Thirty Hours
   Joses Ho

Party at Xue’s House
The End of Thai Phooket
   Michael Gray

Kairos
   Cyril Wong

 
* “Yellow Card Man” serves as a prelude to Bacigalupi’s celebrated debut novel The Windup Girl, and has now been updated and revised in this version so that it is consistent with the characters and events in that novel.