LONTAR: The Journal of Southeast Asian Speculative Fiction – Issue #5

• 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 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.

The first two issues of LONTAR were promoted heavily by online ebook seller Weightless Books: Issue #1 was the #1 ebook bestseller at Weightless Books for February/March 2014 and the #2 bestseller for May 2014; Issue #2 sold over 100 copies at Weightless Books in the first two weeks after release, and was the #1 ebook bestseller for May 2014. LONTAR has been previously featured on Boing Boing, Adventures of a Bookonaut, Diversity in SF&F, Rocket Kapre, SF Signal and io9. The print editions of issues #2 and #3 were simultaneously launched in December 2014.

LONTAR is the world’s only biannual literary journal focusing on Southeast Asian speculative fiction. Our contributors have won major literary awards in Singapore, the USA, UK, Japan, Taiwan and the Philippines.