Tag Archives: interviews

Eastlit News May 2015

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It is a long while since, I have done an Eastlit news post, and there are a number of developments to mention. So here is the first Eastlit news post in a while.

Easlit Live

We should soon have a new poetry reading up on Eastlit Live. When we do, I will mention it in the news again. At the moment I am just waiting for some artwork to add to it. When I launched Eastlit Live I thought it would be an exciting development, so this is great news for me.

If you have any multimedia poetry or story readings or other multimedia art pieces that you would like us to consider for Eastlit Live, please contact Graham. Anything we put on Eastlit Live will also be mentioned in a news item here, to make sure our community are aware.

Graham Interviewed

Eastlit News May 2015: Asian Books BlogRosie Milne of the Asian Books Blog took the time to interview me about Eastlit and publishing. If you are interested in my views, why not take a read of All About Eastlit / Graham Lawrence. 

The Asian Books Blog which has been going for a few years now, has a lot of other stuff worth a read too. If you have a few minutes to spare, take a look around and see what Rosie is up to at the Asian Books Blog.

Eastlit E-Magazine, Print and More

I still want to see Eastlit published in an e-magazine/e-book version that can be read on Android, iOS and Kindle devices. As soon as I can find the time, I plan to make this happen.

You will notice that there is now a print button on most pages, if you prefer to read your favorites on paper!. I added this a few months back. The page can also be turned into a PDF via this button.

Southlit Supplement

A few months ago, I integrated the separate Southlit Journal into Eastlit as a Supplement. This was done as there seemed an obvious connection in culture at least between South and Southeast Asia. There was also an overlap in readership. When I added on all the extra work it involved for me and the team, combining the two made sense.

For readers this also adds a wider variety of poetry, fiction and artwork to read and view each month. If you are primarily interested in South Asia, you can go straight to the supplement. If you are interested in East and Southeast Asia, stick with our usual magazine. However, I do hope that a bit of variety adds something for our readership.

For contributors it adds an opportunity for you work to be more widely seen and be seen in a different region or two.

Finally in Eastlit News

Thanks to the recently expanded editorial board for all your hard work. I am especially thankful to the original poetry reading group for coping without complaint with all the extra poetry that had to be read each month before the board was expanded.

Enough on Eastlit news for now.

Cheers.

Graham

 

Best Read Asian Literature in Eastlit

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Best Read Asian Literature on Eastlit

Best Read Asian Literature in Eastlit March 2015 Cover. Picture by Stuart Coward. Cover design by Graham Lawrence. Copyright photographer, Eastlit and Graham Lawrence.These are the new lists of best read Asian literature found in Eastlit. Unfortunately time means these are getting later and later. Sorry for that. Eastlit includes all the best read Asian fiction, poetry, artwork and non-fiction of the most recent seven and thirty days. Eastlit’s all time list of best read Asian literature has also been updated. Due to popular request, we continue to provide direct links to each piece in our lists.

All of this bets read Asian literature and artwork can be read from the links on this page or just make use of the links in the top menu. Eastlit’s archive can be used for navigation, too. Hopefully it will also give you an opportunity to read some of the less read pieces. After all, we all know well read does not always mean the best!

The next issue of Eastlit will be out around the end of March or start of April.

Please note that we have a policy of excluding all the covers, content pages, contributor lists etc from these statistics.

Best Read Asian Literature Last Seven Day:

  1. A Descendent of Emperor Shang Tang by Minglu Zeng (December 2014).
  2. The Paddle Steamer by Iftekhar Sayeed (March 2015).
  3. Return to Gander by Xiaowen Zeng (March 2015).
  4. The White Fox by L.P. Lee (March 2015).
  5. High Water by Reid Mitchell (March 2015).

Best Read Asian Literature Last Thirty Days:

  1. Ashwin Mudigonda: An Eastlit interview by Graham Lawrence (March 2015).
  2. Return to Gander by Xiaowen Zeng (March 2015).
  3. Morning Music by Jonathan Ng (March 2015).
  4. High Water by Reid Mitchell (March 2015).
  5. Mr. Ranjan’s Student by Nadeem Zaman (March 2015).

Best Read Asian Literature All Time:

  1. Ishinomaki by Cesar Polvorosa Jr. (February 2014).
  2. The Foreign Man Is Prepared to Take Everything in His Stride by Connla Stokes (July 2014).
  3. Smoke and Mirrors by Sayantan Ghosh (April 2014).
  4. The Bicentennial by Cesar Polvorosa Jr. (June 2014).
  5. Going Back to Emerald Hill by Chew Yi Wei (April 2013).
  6. The Puppet Tree by Andrew J. West (October 2013).
  7. A Veil of Silk by Jared Angel (June 2014).
  8. Bluebird Island by Pauline Lacanilao (December 2013).
  9. Translucence & The Exile by James Underwood (December 2014).
  10. One Day Friends by Ralph Catedral (February 2014).

Year on Year Readership Change

  • + 46% December 2013 on December 2012.
  • +172% January 2014 on January 2013.
  • +161% February 2104 on February 2013.
  • +242% March 2014 on March 2013.
  • +64% April 2014 on April 2013.
  • +8% May 2014 on May 2013.
  • +69% June 2014 on June 2013.
  • +17% July 2014 on July 2013.
  • +33% August 2014 on August 2013.
  • +21% September 2014 on September 2013.
  • +2% October 2014 on October 2013.
  • +32% November 2014 on November 2013.
  • +26% December 2014 on December 2013.
  • +32% January 2015 on January 2014.
  • +11% February 2015 on February 2014.

Top Ten Countries in Alphabetical Order:

  • Bangladesh
  • China & Hong Kong
  • India
  • Malaysia
  • Philippines
  • Singapore
  • Thailand
  • United Kingdom
  • United States
  • Vietnam

Cheers and Enjoy.

Graham

2014 Top Literature

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Eastlit 2014 Top Literature.

2014 Top Literature Eastlit: Beach View.It is that time of year when I have to find the time to list the best read pieces of 2014. So here it is the Eastlit 2014 top literature top twenty. This time though there is actually a bonus as we have 21 pieces with a tie for 20th!

There is a mix of poetry, fiction and non-fiction, an interview and artwork, so we have a bigger mix than last year.

And talking of last year, we have three pieces that featured in the 2013 top twenty and are also in the 2014 top literature list. Their 2013 positions are included in brackets after the author.

The usual monthly lists will be out shortly, but for now let’s see the most popular of 2014.

2014 Top Literature:

  1. Ishinomaki by Cesar Polvorosa Jr.
  2. The Foreign Man Is Prepared to Take Everything in His Stride by Connla Stokes.
  3. Smoke and Mirrors by Sayantan Ghosh.
  4. The Bicentennial by Cesar Polvorosa Jr.
  5. A Veil of Silk by Jared Angel.
  6. One Day Friends by Ralph Catedral.
  7. Eastern Poetry by Graham Lawrence. (2013 position 3)
  8. A Complete Overhaul by Stephen Jordan.
  9. Why I Write by Qui-Phiet Tran.
  10. Going Back to Emerald Hill by Chew Yi Wei. (2013 position 6)
  11. Day of Valor by Pauline Lacanilao.
  12. Cesar Polvorosa Jr. Interview by Graham Lawrence.
  13. The Puppet Tree Illustration by Vasan Sitthiket.
  14. Sentences and Two Other Poems by Henrik Hoeg.
  15. The Puppet Tree by Andrew J. West. (2013 position 5)
  16. Perfect Present by Andrew J. West.
  17. The Old Hibachi by Peter Mallett.
  18. A Secret Paradise by Daniel Emlyn-Jones.
  19. A Bridge Behind by Khanh Ha.
  20. Massey Hall 1971 by Flora Qian and Unit 136 by China De Vera.

Other News

Thanks to you all for your wonderful support over the last year. I hope you will keep on contributing or reading Eastlit in 2015. We hope to continue dynamically through 2015 and already have a few plans. Southlit will be integrated into Eastlit starting in February. The aim is to compliment what we already have and hopefully expand the reader base as well as the contributor one.

If anyone has any comments or suggestions on anything to do with Eastlit please get in touch with the editor. All feedback is listened to, considered and appreciated! We are also looking for guest editorials and a possible volunteer for the editorial board. If anyone wants to be interviewed for Eastlit, let me know. Oh and if you like us, linking to our site is always appreciated!

Have a great 2015.

Cheers.

Graham.

Second Year

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Eastlit Second Year: Cover of Issue One, First Year. Picture and Cover Design by Graham Lawrence. An evening picture of Wonnapha Beach, Chonburi, Thailand by Graham Lawrence.First I would like to apologize for any delays in replying recently. I will be staring a new job in a few days time, and will temporarily be working away from home. That has meant finding some temporary accommodation. So I haven’t been as available as usual. Things should settle down again now though. Anyway enough of that.

It is about the second year of Eastlit and some new initiatives that I want to look at this time.

The cover to the left is of the inaugural issue of Eastlit, many moons ago. Just click on it for a reminder of where we started.

Eastlit First Anniversary: Welcome to the Second Year!

As many of you know we are fast approaching the first birthday of Eastlit. That seems like a good time to introduce some new things. It is also a good time to renew energy in some older projects. So for the second year of Eastlit, we have some plans. We will start to roll these out from the December issue.

Monthly Reviews

We will be introducing book reviews by a regular contributor. The aim is to have one per month. This does not mean we will not take reviews from others.

Author and Artist Interviews

These will be of different types. Obviously we do not have he resources to gallivant around the world interviewing people. But there is modern technology. We have several types of interview:

  • written: we send out our questions and the replies are written.
  • audio: we send out written questions and the replies are spoken.
  • video: we send out written questions and the replies are spoken onto video.
  • full video: we send out written questions and you the author or artist find a friend to ask the questions and then answer them while making a video.

We are now inviting all of our contributors over the past year to be interviewed. Just contact us at Eastlit editors

All previously published authors and artists interviews will be published. We will do this via Eastlit and/or Eastlit Live. Oh unless you are hideously rude or offensive! The timing of these will depend on the popularity of this.

E-Magazine

I have virtually completed the editing of the downloadable E-version of he first issue of Eastlit. I will release at some auspicious time!

Republication

This is just a reminder that as from the December issue we will republish a piece of work from a previous issue of Eastlit. This will be chosen randomly. These will appear on their own special page in Eastlit.

Second Issue - Eastlit. EastlitSplashScreen. The New App

There is still some technical work to be done on our new independent Android app. When it is finished, we will release it. In the meantime the old one is still available from the Google App. Store.

Links

If any of our contributors have a literature or art website or blog and would like us to consider linking to it, let us know. We are going o start building a links list.

Second Year Other Things

Thank you to everyone who reads, contributes to and recommends Eastit. Without you, we are nothing. I hope you continue to do so. And if you have any requests, ideas or comments for the second year, please let me know. I will be doing a separate post on areas we may need or not need to change.

And thanks to those who have donated to help Eastlit cover costs. It does make things a easier. It really is appreciated.

Cheers

Graham

Eastlit Live

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There are a couple of exciting new developments to mention today: The first Eastlit app for tablets and smart phones, and Eastlit Live.

Bracelets not War: Eastlit Live. Photograph by Graham LawrenceEastlit Live

Eastlit Live is an attempt to move beyond just written words. Now we are in the 21st century. That means multimedia and mobility. In an attempt to keep up with the world, we are introducing a new concept. We call this Eastlit Live. At Eastlit we want to introduce a multimedia approach to literature.

This approach though melds the new and traditional. We all know of poetry readings and storytelling. Both have a long history. Or maybe it should be something more modern limited only by the imagination of the creator.

Well now we have set up an Eastlit You Tube channel called Eastlitlive so that you can showcase your poetry reading, readings of your short stories, interviews or other artistic offerings. We want this to be a service for our contributors. And we see it as a way you can promote yourself. We accept anything that is within the normal guidelines. This means connected to or from East and Southeast Asia and not of an adult nature. On Eastlit Live channel we will host anything submitted that meets our guidelines.This is slightly different from the Eastlit Journal where we scrutinize everything. However, what we highlight in the actual journal will still go through this process. And we will be highlighting the best of what we receive every month.

We plan on launching this new initiative as soon as we can. That relies on you, though. So get your videos in now! Oh if you have questions, please feel free to ask through our contact form or by e-mail contact. I will let you know more as this develops. As there is nothing up yet, just subscribe to the channel if interested. We hope it will not be long before we have something for you.

How do you send them? Well just send me a link to a Dropbox file, Google Drive file or any other way you can think of. You can submit these links or files through the normal submission e-mail, or through our g-mail. Submissions will be put up as soon as possible on You Tube. Plus, every monthly issue of Eastlit will feature a page highlighting and embedding what our editors liked most.

Android App

I have been talking about this since the launch of Eastlit. And the app is another aspect of the Eastlit Live concept. Well, now it is in the Google Playstore. You can find it via the link in the heading. You can also go the Play Store and search Eastlit. It would be great if all of you Android users could give it a go and send me some feedback to the normal e-mails etc. The version out is a simple one, but with 3000+ android phones it has to be I guess. At the moment you can access the whole site. I am not sure if that is the way to go on a mobile though. However, I thought it better to await feedback. There are also possibilities of including extra more social aspects. In the end I decided it was better to await feedback rather than decide myself.

This version does have a small mobile adverts panel. It costs to add these developments to Eastlit, so I have little choice but to seek some ways of recouping a little of that cost. If there is interest in iPhone or Windows Phone apps, let me know. These can be created too. Development though for both is more expensive.

Anyway, I would appreciate any feedback on:

  • What you would like to see included.
  • What pages you would like to see removed.
  • Comments on design, aesthetics etc

Other News:

Anna Yin has sent a copy of her recent book Inhaling the Silence to be reviewed. Hopefully, that review will be in the September issue of Eastlit. Information on Anna’s book can be found at the site of Mosaic who published it.

Oh and of course don’t forget the next issue of Eastlit will be out on August 1, 2013.

Cheers.

Graham.