Tag Archives: writers

Eastlit Popular Creative Writing

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Eastlit April 2014 Cover. The cover was designed by Graham Lawrence. The cover picture is "Hands". It is by Stuart Coward. Copyright Eastlit and Artist.This is the latest update of the popular creative writing and art that has featured in Eastlit. It is a snapshot of the most popular creative writing over the past seven and thirty days. As usual I have also included and updated list of the all time top ten.

You can navigate to the pieces via our top bar or archive. There are some good reads among the lesser read pieces, too. Why not take a look?

The next issue of Eastlit will be out on June 1 and the first issue of our new sister journal will be out on July 15.

Eastlit Popular Creative Writing. Last Seven Days

  1. Why I Write by Qui-Phiet Tran (April 2014).
  2. Common Filipino Funeral Superstitions Rebutted by Reynold P. Macaranas (March 2013).
  3. Moonlight Scarf and Two Other Poems by Rose Lu (May 2014).
  4. Smoke and Mirrors by Sayantan Ghosh (April 2014).
  5. Fragrant Island and Three Other Poems by Deborah Wong (May 2014).

Eastlit Popular Creative Writing. Last Thirty Days:

  1. Common Filipino Funeral Superstitions Rebutted by Reynold P. Macaranas (March 2013).
  2. Ishinomkai by Cesar Polvorosa Jr. (February 2014).
  3. Smoke and Mirrors by Sayantan Ghosh (April 2014).
  4. A Complete Overhaul by Stephen Jordan (March 2014).
  5. The Star Ferry by David Flynn (May 2014).

Eastlit Popular Creative Writing. All Time:

  1. Common Filipino Funeral Superstitions Rebutted by Reynold P. Macaranas (March 2013).
  2. Ishinomaki by Cesar Polvorosa Jr. (February 2014).
  3. Smoke and Mirrors by Sayantan Ghosh (April 2014).
  4. Bluebird Island by Pauline Lacanilao (December 2013).
  5. Going Back to Emerald Hill by Chew Yi Wei (April 2013).
  6. The Puppet Tree by Andrew J. West (October 2013).
  7. Going Home by Steve Rosse (February 2013).
  8. A Complete Overhaul by Stephen Jordan (March 2014).
  9. The Debt by Kritika Chettri (November 2013).
  10. Day of Valor by Pauline Lacanilao (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.

Top Ten Countries in Alphabetical Order:

  • Canada
  • China
  • India
  • Japan
  • Malaysia
  • Philippines
  • Singapore
  • Thailand
  • United Kingdom
  • United States

Other News:

Our friends over at The Font have heir second issue out. Why not take a look?

Cheers and Enjoy.

Graham

Popular Asian Poetry, Fiction and Art in Eastlit

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Popular Asian Poetry, Fiction & Art. Eastlit April 2014 Cover designed by Graham Lawrence. The cover picture is "Hands". It is by Stuart Coward. Copyright Eastlit and Artist.It is time to update the popular Asian poetry, fiction and art that has appeared in Eastlit. Once again we are taking a look a snapshot look at the most popular Asian poetry, fiction and art for the past seven and thirty days. I also include an updated all time list of popular Asian poetry, fiction and art. Plus there is also the latest month on month growth in readership comparison. And finally I include a list of the countries where Eastlit is most read.

I continue to only include creative submissions by contributors. Eastlit pages and regular columns are not included. I have again not provided direct links to each piece, but do mention the respective issue. It is easy enough to find the pieces from these. The menu has direct links to the three most recent issues. The archive has links to older issues.

Why not also take a look at less read pieces. This post is intended as always as a bit of fun. The appreciation of art and literature is very much subjective and because something is well read doesn’t necessarily mean you will like it!

Enough from me and so it is on with the lists of popular Asian poetry, fiction and art in Eastlit:

Popular Asian Poetry, Fiction and Art. Last Seven Days:

  1. Smoke and Mirrors by Sayantan Ghosh (April 2014).
  2. Why I Write by Qui-Phiet Tran (April 2014).
  3. Massey Hall 1971 by Flora Qian (April 2014).
  4. Three Worlds by Andrew J. West (April 2014).
  5. What the Dog Saw at Noon by Zara Adcock (April 2014).

Popular Asian Poetry, Fiction and Art. Last Thirty Days:

  1. Smoke and Mirrors by Sayantan Ghosh (April 2014).
  2. Ishinomkai by Cesar Polvorosa Jr. (February 2014).
  3. Why I Write by Qui-Phiet Tran (April 2014).
  4. Common Filipino Funeral Superstitions Rebutted by Reynold P. Macaranas (March 2013).
  5. A Complete Overhaul by Stephen Jordan (March 2014).

Popular Asian Poetry, Fiction and Art. All Time:

  1. Common Filipino Funeral Superstitions Rebutted by Reynold P. Macaranas (March 2013).
  2. Ishinomaki by Cesar Polvorosa Jr. (February 2014).
  3. Bluebird Island by Pauline Lacanilao (December 2013).
  4. Smoke and Mirrors by Sayantan Ghosh (April 2014).
  5. Going Home by Steve Rosse (February 2013).
  6. The Puppet Tree by Andrew J. West (October 2013).
  7. Going Back to Emerald Hill by Chew Yi Wei (April 2013).
  8. A Complete Overhaul by Stephen Jordan (March 2014).
  9. The Mansion by Andrew J. West (June 2013).
  10. The Debt by Kritika Chettri (November 2013).

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.

Top Ten Countries in Alphabetical Order:

  • Canada
  • China
  • Hong Kong
  • India
  • Malaysia
  • Philippines
  • Singapore
  • Thailand
  • United Kingdom
  • United States

Cheers and Enjoy.

Graham

Editor’s Note:

Previous posts on what was popular in Eastlit were:

Top Asian Creative Writing

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Eastlit: Top Asian Creative Writing post. Eastlit March 2014 Cover. The cover was designed by Graham Lawrence. The cover picture is "Vientiane Flags". It is by Graham Lawrence. Copyright Eastlit and Artist.We continue to look at the top Asian creative writing published in Eastlit in 2014. Past posts on top Asian creative writing are: top reads, popular writing, top ten, latest popular literature, hot eastern literature and of course the well read 2013 top twenty. These posts continue to be some of the best read at Eastlit, so we feel honour bound to continue them. This one on Top Asian Creative Writing covers the early March period.

This Top Asian Creative Writing post covers the top 5 in the last seven and thirty days as well as updating our all time top Asian creative writing list. There continues to be movement in the all time list with some new entries. There are also several pieces very close to entering this list too! The massive year on year growth in readership helps more recent pieces of work rise up the rank quickly.

As is traditional, the Top Asian Creative Writing list is of submissions of work by contributors. Other pages and posts such as interviews, Eastlit main pages, editorials, Eastlit covers, regular columns and news items are not included. Again I do not include direct hyperlinks to each piece. This could affect fairness by directing traffic! However, as usual I have listed the issue each piece appeared in. It is easy from this to use the archive page to find past issues of Eastlit journal. More recent issues can also be found in the navigation bar at the top of the page. It’s also an idea to take a look at some of the less read pieces. You may find a personal gem in them. A piece in the top ten may not mean it is the best, and everyone has different tastes 😉

OK. Enough here are the Top Asian Creative Writing in Eastlit lists for March 2014:

Top Asian Creative Writing: Last Seven Days:

  1. A Complete Overhaul by Stephen Jordan (March 2014).
  2. Four Poems by Rose Lu (March 2014).
  3. Five Poems by Reid Mitchell (March 2014).
  4. Common Filipino Funeral Superstitions Rebutted by Reynold P. Macaranas (March 2013).
  5. Back to the Future by Steve Rosse (March 2014).

Top Asian Creative Writing: Last Thirty Days:

  1. A Complete Overhaul by Stephen Jordan (March 2014).
  2. Ishinomaki by Cesar Polvorosa Jr. (February 2014).
  3. Common Filipino Funeral Superstitions Rebutted by Reynold P. Macaranas (March 2013).
  4. Day of Valor by Pauline Lacanilao (February 2014).
  5. Auntie Moh Leen by Daniel Emlyn Jones (March 2014).

Top Asian Creative Writing: All Time:

  1. Common Filipino Funeral Superstitions Rebutted by Reynold P. Macaranas (March 2013).
  2. Bluebird Island by Pauline Lacanilao (December 2013).
  3. The Puppet Tree by Andrew J. West (October 2013).
  4. Going Home by Steve Rosse (February 2013).
  5. Going Back to Emerald Hill by Chew Yi Wei (April 2013).
  6. Ishinomaki by Cesar Polvorosa Jr. (February 2014).
  7. The Mansion by Andrew J. West (June 2013).
  8. The Debt by Kritika Chettri (November 2013).
  9. Five Poems by Rose Lu (April 2013).
  10. One Day Friend 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.

Cheers and Enjoy.

Graham

Popular Writing

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Popular Writing: Eastlit. Guardian Image by Graham LawrenceThe last time I did a piece on top reads, it seemed to generate quite a bit of interest. I wasn’t really sure if popular writing would go down well, but by popular request it is back.

So here we are again with an update on popular writing in Eastlit. As with the previous one, I have listed the top five most popular writing pieces of the last five and thirty days. I have also done the top ten reads of all time. There has been some movement in this list!

Again I have only looked at the most popular writing by contributors. I haven’t included site pages, editorials, covers or news items etc. As before, I haven’t included a direct link to each piece, but I have listed the issue each piece is in. Links to back issues can be found in the Eastlit Archive. Recent issues can be found in the menu at the top of the page. Maybe take a look at some of the lesser read pieces too. Of course being popular may not mean best 😉

Anyway here is the popular writing:

Popular Writing: Last Seven Days:

  1. Common Filipino Funeral Superstitions Rebutted by Reynold P. Macaranas (March).
  2. Shadows in Rooms by Anita Gill (August).
  3. Going Back to Emerald Hill by Chew Yi Wei (April).
  4. Four Poems by Anna Yin (March).
  5. Art of Evil by Andrew J. West (August).

Popular Writing: Last Thirty Days:

  1. Common Filipino Funeral Superstitions Rebutted by Reynold P. Macaranas (March).
  2. Art of Evil by Andrew J. West (August).
  3. The Sarawak Club by Colin W. Campbell (September).
  4. The Pilgrim by Simon Rowe (September).
  5. Colonial Arch by Rembrandt Ramilo (September).

Popular Writing: Top Ten All Time:

  1. Common Filipino Funeral Superstitions Rebutted by Reynold P. Macaranas (March).
  2. The Mansion by Andrew J. West (June).
  3. Going Back to Emerald Hill by Chew Yi Wei (April).
  4. Going Home by Steve Rosse (February).
  5. Five Poems by Rose Lu (April).
  6. La Perla by MFL Bulandus (December).
  7. Three Poems by Rose Lu (July).
  8. Monkey Business by Ashwin Mudigonda (December).
  9. The Battle of Mianzi by Nichole Reber (May).
  10. Struck by T-net Quiring (July).

Other News:

I have been quite busy with personal and family business recently, so apologies if things are getting delayed.

We are taking submissions for the next 6 issues now, so please keep them coming to the submissions e-mail. Please take a look at the submissions guidelines first.

Why not also take a look at our Eastlit Live channel? Or better still send us some live material to publish! If you want to chat about this please contact us.

I would also like to mention a new online journal, The Font which is a literary journal aimed at language teachers. The Font has just launched ts first issue. They are not connected to Eastlit formally, but we have had a nice dialogue as they have set up. Xenia Taiga and Nichole Reber who have both written for Eastlit feature in their first issue.

Cheers.

Graham.

Eastlit September

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Well sorry, I haven’t done one of these pieces for a while. It has been a very busy time for me away from Eastlit. I will however try to get one or two of these pieces out every month.

Eastlit September Issue

Eastlit September: Journal Cover Eastlit September 2013. Well the Eastlit September issue is out and it is nice to be getting posiitve feedback. Thanks from me and thanks from the writers too.

The Eastlit September issue contains a mix of poetry, short stories and non-fiction. It also includes another extract from a novel. Plus we have the regular piece form Steve Rosse in the How Not to Write series.

We continue to try and introduce a few new writers or poets every issue.

I would also like to thank all the editorial board members for their help. You know who you are. Thanks from me to members old and new. Thanks also to those who have volunteered to join he board in the future and also hose who have sent in guest editorials for consideration. It all helps.

Donations

As I said on the front page, now is a time of some expense for Eastlit. If you are able to help with a dollar, pound, yen or two or know someone who is, it will certainly be appreciated. And if you can’t hey just keep reading or sending the work in, or give us a like, share or spread the word. It all helps and we do value it all. In fact from me it is thanks to you all who have sent so much in or spent so much time reading Eastlit. It will soon be a year and it is humbling to see quite how many people have followed the development of this little journal.

Oh for donations the button can be found on the right of some pages or the front page. On some mobile devices it may appear at the bottom of the page. And here it is below:




 

Eastlit Courses

Eastlit is now offering the following online courses:

  • Activaing Creativity
  • Creative Writing

If you would like more information, please contact us.

Eastlit September – Other Things

We are taking submissions for the next 6 issues right now, so don’t be shy. Send them in.

The Android app is going through gradual development. If we can raise the money, we will also publish an app for iPhones. It is already made!

OK enough from me.

Cheers

Graham

 

Getting Read

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First

Before moving on to the topic of getting read, I have a few things to say. Sorry about any delays in replies recently. I have been away travelling. Also Bryn has decided to withdraw from Eastlit, so that he can go on an extended period of travel. He wishes all of you who had contact with him well. We at Eastlit wish Bryn all the best and thank him for his efforts. He will remain a lifelong honoury editor. Because of this, I will be making some changes to Eastlit by creating a larger team to read the submissions. If any of you are interested in this contact admin. There will also be some other changes, but more on these later.

Getting Read

Some writers ask me how they get more people to read their pieces. Well the first thing is that Eastlit has grown in readership every month. April was up 30% on March and May 30% on April. This should help in getting read more. Each month usually starts with the current issue being the best read thing by far. However, as the month moves on older issues start to receive reads. If your work is in older issues, it is still getting read although at a lower rate than when first published. As the months go by we are also going to use reminders of older pieces. We already did one of these with the post on poetry last month. We also integrate launches and news items with a variety of social media actions both official and unofficial to attract readers. In the near future we intend to intensify this and also aim to start press releases in the regions we cover. All of this should result in your work getting read more often.

Now that is what Eastlit does. However, it is also possible for contributors to help each other get more reads. If you have a piece published and share it on say your Facebook, then you attract some of your friends to read your piece. Some of these may even read others writers’ pieces especially if you suggest this or like another piece. It is possible to increase the reads by community action like this. Oh and please note that it does not make us at Eastlit any money! That has never been our aim as mentioned in previous posts and on our supporting local writers page.

If you support us and our aims it also helps if you give us a like or share on the Eastlit home page, submissions page or supporting local writers one linked to above. This also helps to get more readers who will look at your work.

June Issue

Getting Read: Latest New Post by Graham. How to get more reads of your pieces on Eastlit. Getting Read by Graham LawrenceIf you haven’t seen the June issue yet, just click on the picture to the left to go there. Clicking will take you to the unique cover based on a picture by leading Thai artist Vasan Sitthiket. The drawing is an illustration of the short story The Mansion by Andrew J. West.

Other pieces include Two Poems by rising Chinese poet and writer Xenia Taiga, Three Poems by Károly Sándor Pallai who usually writes in French but whom we are pleased to welcome to Eastlit and there also three more poems by Zara Adcock our youngest contributor. Completing the poetry in the June issue are contributions by Tendai R. Mwanaka and Michele Alice. A.T. Payne’s sees her first publication in Eastlit with the story Waiting for Jasmine and Chained by Nick M. Aarons also with his first piece in Eastlit completes the fiction line up. Both non-fiction pieces are also by writers new to Eastlit with Carol Colborn’s piece plus photographs on Reliving World War II in the Philippines and Lucy Howson’s Vietnam based Saturday Night Sat on the Street in District 1. Steve Rosse finishes the June issue up with the second in the series How not to Write.

Finally

Thanks to everyone who has sent in work or read an issue of Eastlit. Also thanks to all of you who have made suggestions. You know who you are. All the current round of changes should be complete within the next 6 months.

That is about all for now except for personal thanks from me to Bryn for everything. Hey Bryn, enjoy the world. You will always remain a good friend. And thanks for the nice words re Eastlit.

Cheers.

Graham.

Past and Future

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It is time to think of the future now that Eastlit has made it past six months and has published six online issues. Over this period we have also seen constant growth in readership. Just from March to April saw a 50% increase. Bryn and I have also managed to increase administrative efficiency to the point where we are now confident that we can start thinking about moving to the next stage in Eastlit’s development. We would also like to thank all of you who have contributed work, read the journal and given us feedback over the first six months. We would not be where we are without you.

The Future

The first thing to say about the future is that we do not plan on changing what we offer now. However, there are a number of things we are looking at adding:

  • Issues of Eastlit that can be downloaded. This means you would not need to be online to read Eastlit. You could also read it on reading devices such as Kindles. It may also make things easier on the eye.
  • Photograph and visual art section. While concentrating on English literature in East and South East Asia, in response to some requests, we are thinking of taking submissions of photographs or other works of visual art. We believe this would add a nice juxtaposition to the text, and also create more of a magazine feel.
  • Non-native writers. We plan on actively promoting Eastlit and its free editorial services for non-native writers in the future. We are also thinking of offering some form of online creative writing courses aimed at non-native writers. This is all part of our longer term aim of supporting local writers. We would dearly love to take this all to some of the poorer countries of the region, but that is probably for a later stage. Our longer term aim is to increase the amount of local non-native pieces without cutting the amount of quality native written pieces we publish. Eastlit would just become a larger publication.
  • Revisiting older issues/pieces. We do plan on highlighting or reissuing pieces of work that can be buried in older issues as time goes by. One of the things I personally heard from writers when first mulling the idea of Eastlit was that they had pieces published years ago that they felt were now just lost in either a dead journal or a years old unviewed issue. We at Eastlit want to try and ensure that this will not happen to work published on Eastlit.
  • Archive. Any issue older than 3 months is now listed on the currently minimalist Archive page. For now just click the picture on this page to enter the issue. I will probably be redesigning the archive page in the next few months. Hey, any ideas on what it should or should not have would be great!

These are our plans, but before moving ahead with them, we would as always appreciate any thoughts, comments or criticism. At Eastlit we do want to remain genuinely responsive to our contributors and readers and be as transparent as we can. I am letting you know about this now before we move ahead, so we can factor in any feedback we get. As the plans are formulated I will give updated reports here.

These plans together coupled with increased viewing does mean extra cost for us, and that brings me to the next topic.

Fund Raising

Firstly, this is not a sudden request for donations or largesse,  but a request for any advice or ideas on how funds could be raised to cover increased costs. Bryn and I are not looking at being paid or even recouping what we have already spent on setting up Eastlit. However, to move ahead on the new projects, we are looking at ways we could cover some or even all of the cost of a project. Our personal funds are not unlimited! Neither of us are businessmen or have any experience or knowledge of raising funds. If anyone reading this does, some advice would be welcome. You can contact us here.

Previously we mentioned advertising. However, this was not popular as it was seen as anything from selling out to ruining the look. So I guess that option is ruled out. We will also not indulge in anything that risks the independence of Eastlit, its aims or its editorial policy. Apart from that we are open to suggestions, but please bear in mind neither of us can cook cakes that anyone will buy.

It would also be nice if one day we could offer some remuneration for contributions, or maybe more realistically competition prizes.

May Issue

Past and Future Page: Table of Content: The complete list of contents for the Eastlit May Issue is below. Please click on a link to go to the page. We hope you enjoy the work in the May issue of Eastlit. Eastlit Cover. The picture is Renewal of Vows and is submitted by Tom Sheehan featuring his old friends Stanley "Ike" George Kujawski (7-20-21 to 5-3-12) and Setsuko "Dottie" Haghara Kujawski (3-3-22 to 11-15-88). They were Married in Tokyo on 11-12-47. Married for 41 years. The poem At the Lake featured in this issue of Eastlit is dedicated to Stanley Kujawski. The Eastlit May cover design is by Graham Lawrence. Editorial by Bryn Tennant. Blame it on the Farmer by Stefanie Field. At the Lake by Tom Sheehan. The Cebuanos by Charlie Canning. Three Poems by Anna Yin. The poems are: The Map Home, Visiting "The Warrior Emperor and China's Terracotta Army" and A Chinese Nightingale. The Battle of Mianzi by Nichole Reber. Life Cycle by Richard Lutman. Life Cycle is the third chapter of The Iron Buttefly. Five Poems by James Underwood. The poems are: Absent, Currents, Mine, Semaphore and Whiter. Gavin is a Nazi by Christopher Luppi. Five Poems by James Austin Farrell. The poems are: The Battle of the Bulge, Five Star, Rainy Season, Sentiments and The Night Bazaar. A Girl Named Indira by Ashutosh Ravikrishnan. Three Poems by Dawnell Harrison. The poems are: Wounded Whisper, Quiet and Time. Master by Nicholas Keys. How not Write: 1. How Not to Market Yourself by Steve Rosse. The first in a series of short advisory pieces by author and editor Stever Rosse. Contributors. An alphabetical list of all the contributors to the May issue of Eastlit complete with biographies of all the writers and poets can be found in this section. Note on Work: Please note that we publish work as received. We do not edit work for minor errors. We regard these as decisions made by the author. The one exception is that we may work with second language writers to help them say what they want to say. Please note all work whether writing or pictures remains the copyrighted work of its authors. Subscribe to our newsletter for all the latest on upcoming issues, competitions, incentives, contributors and news in general. The independent offshoot of Eastlit The International Writers Group can be found on Google+.The May issue has already been read by a very large number of people. I did hear a report or two of the server being down on occasion. If you notice this, could you please let me know as we do have a plan to upgrade hosting, but with cost a consideration it is not yet urgent although could become so!

Anyway the May issue with the last part of the Iron Butterfly and the first of the How Not to Write series as well as writers new and previous to Eastlit is out and receiving good feedback. If you haven’t seen it yet, just click on the picture to the left. It has more content than the last few issues. The cover picture is explained inside.

Translations

Don’t forget you can now also submit translations into English of fiction, non-fiction and poetry. In fact we positively welcome this. Please read our submissions page first. Then submit through the submissions e-mail.

Other News

There is not much else to say. However, I would like to thank all those who have contributed to the first six issues. I have really enjoyed everything I have read even in some cases if it hasn’t been published. Remember that you can submit more any time, and we will just slot it in for consideration for one of the next few issues.

If you like Eastlit and our aims, please support us by spreading the word or like or share this or another page.

Oh, remember you can also get all this news from our newsletter. Sign up now to have the news sent to your e-mail if you would like that.

Cheers.

Graham.

April News

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Well it is Happy Thai New Year (Songkhran) to everyone who celebrates it at the start of this news post. It is very hot in Thailand and the five days of water throwing where I live is in full flow. People really seem to be enjoying themselves this year, which is a great thing.

Still, sitting in the garden at 9:45 I had better turn my mind to things Eastlit and give an update of what is going on before the temperature rises too high and the partying begins.

May Issue

The May issue of Eastlit will be bigger than the April issue. The plan is to have it out on May 1 for International Labour Day. It will include fiction, poetry, a novel extract and non-fiction and the first of a series on how not to write!

How Not to Write

Starting in the May issue we will be running a series titled How Not to Write by Steve Rosse. Steve Rosse is a former columnist for The Nation newspaper in Bangkok. He has written a number of books and is an accomplished editor with an eye for good and bad writing!  He has had a number of pieces published in Eastlit since its launch. We hope that writers both new and experienced will find his advice and tips useful.

April Issue

Table of Content: The complete list of contents for the Eastlit April Issue is below. Please click on a link to go to the page. We hope you enjoy the work in the April issue of Eastlit. Eastlit Cover. The picture is Urumqi in Winter by Xenia Taiga. The Eastlit April cover design is by Graham Lawrence. Note: Urumqi is the capital of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China, in the northwest of the country. Editorial by Graham Lawrence. Five Poems by Rose Lu. The poems are: It's Neither Frivolous nor Drifty, A Fan, Alley, Bride of Spring and Your Autumn Leaves, My Water. Going Back to Emerald Hill by Chew Yi Wei. Black Void by Dan Asenlund. Author's note: "Black Void," is a magic realism tale taking place in a northern suburb of Seoul, South Korea. Three Poems by Tendai R. Mwanaka. The poems are: A Road to Somewhere, The Real Nuclear Threat and Intent. Three Pantoums by Colin W. Campbell. The pantoums are: Whispers, Radio Show and Mutiara 93250. J.R. and M.S. do PP by Matt Sipprell. The Articulate Mind by Steve Rosse. China - A Sequence by Iain Maloney. Contributors. An alphabetical list of all the contributors to the April issue of Eastlit complete with biographies of all the writers and poets can be found in this section. Note on Work: Please note that we publish work as received. We do not edit work for minor errors. We regard these as decisions made by the author. The one exception is that we may work with second language writers to help them say what they want to say. Please note all work whether writing or pictures remains the copyrighted work of its authors. Subscribe to our newsletter for all the latest on upcoming issues, competitions, incentives, contributors and news in general. The independent offshoot of Eastlit The International Writers Group can be found on Google+.The April issue of Eastlit was a small one. However, it has attracted a lot of interest. If you have not seen it yet, why not take a look at our unique cover. If you prefer, you can go straight to the table of contents. Eastlit’s April issue has a mix of poetry, fiction and non-fiction. The contributors come from across the region and outside. They include expatriates as well as local writers, and we feature both writers new to Eastlit and a couple of old hands. The cover picture is provided by Xenia Taiga this month. Thanks to all those who contributed ad to those who have read it.

Eastlit and Readers

Over the course of this year to date, there has been a steady increase in the number of readers visiting the site. We would like to thank our readers for their support of the site and its contributors. Without you Eastlit would not be here. We also invite comments or suggestions through the usual contact.

Previously Published Authors

Please remember that you can submit more work at any time. In fact we love to see more from authors we have already published. The only limitation is that in general we do not publish authors in consecutive months. We also welcome submission or work from authors previously rejected. Every piece will be judged on its merits.

Non-Native Writers

At Eastlit we are happy at the number of pieces of work we have received from writers whose native language is not English. Thank you. We hope these submissions continue to increase. Don’t forget that we offer free advice and editing on pieces to non-native writers.

The Butterfly’s Body

The May issue of Eastlit will see the publication of Life Cycle, which is the final chapter of The Iron Butterfly by Richard Lutman. The first two chapters are The Butterfly’s Body and The Colors of the Wings. These were published in the January and March issues of Eastlit respectively.

Translations

You can now also submit translations into English of fiction, non-fiction and poetry. In fact we positively welcome this if anyone has work. Please read our submissions page first. Then submit through the submissions e-mail.

Other News

I have been busy looking for and fixing broken links in Eastlit. Those previously not working have I hope been fixed. However, if you find any broken links please report them to Eastlit admin or through our contact form.

Please also remember you can get all the latest or follow us on the Eastlit Facebook page.

Not much else to say except:

Sawadee Pee Mai.

Cheers.

Graham.

News

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There are a number of news items as we approach the end of March. I have set them out under headings so you can find what is relevant to you.

News

The April issue will be out on April 1, 2013. It will be an issue of eight or nine pieces including fiction, poetry and a couple of non-fiction pieces. This is continuing in line with our smaller issues policy from the start of this year.

Writers will be hearing in the next few days if their work is in or out.

Writing Process and Editing

We hope to be making an announcement on something new to help new and aspiring writers very soon. As soon as we have things confirmed, we will make it public. This fits with our aim of trying to help new writers and non-native writers. We remain fully committed to encouraging and supporting non-native writers.

Writers’ Group

The International Writers Group, which will be independent of Eastlit, has been set up. It is on Facebook as a Facebook page. Google stopped supporting Google Communities. Please take a look if interested. It is open to anyone writing in English. It is also open to those interested in writing and readers. Using Facebook means that writers can take advantage of easy ways to share, edit, co-write or seek opinions. This can also be done in a private way with only chosen people or publicly. That is up to the writer. Using Facebook does though mean you will need a Facebook account. But who doesn’t have one these days!

Right now the group is very new and small. We are actively seeking new members, so if you have friends who may be interested please let them know. The aim is to make this a group for the members and not have it dominated by a few.

Most of all we would love to hear your ideas. You can contact us in the community, through the usual channels here or via our g mail account.

Future Eastlit Issues

We are now taking submissions for our May and June issues. We are accepting fiction, poetry, non-fiction, relevant essays, novel extracts and photographs. If you have not submitted before, please take a look at our submission guidelines before sending work in.

We actively encourage non-native writers to send work in. See our commitment to supporting new writers.

Finally

If you do support our aims or even just enjoy the work, please do like or share us from the links at the bottom.

Cheers.

Graham.

Writer’s Group

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A bit of a conversation has started on the Google+ Eastlit account. This has been about the writers’ group we have mentioned a few times. The aim of this group is not to be an Eastlit writer’s group, but an independent online international group based on democratic principles rather than having a leader. The writers’ group would also be based on members being as much or little involved as they want, and bringing to the group what they wanted.

The group would be there for writers and others to support each other, offer advice on work, read and maybe edit. However, away from that it could also be a place to discuss literature, books, poems and even become a place for like minded people to discuss what they wanted. From my perspective, I would also love it to be a place that warmly welcomes non-native writers, and provides the support and assistance to help them write or say what they want.

At the moment it is early days, but there is discussion of what platform to use. At the moment using Google+ seems favourite. This is because Google documents is an excellent platform for sharing and commenting. The only downside, is that members need a g-mail account. Other possible options are a WordPress.com or similar blog platform. Yahoo and Facebook seem to not be popular as they offer less.

I guess at this stage, though, it would be great to hear from you our readers and writers. I think it should be open to both readers and writers. Are you interested? If so, please let us know. What would you like to see in a group? What would you like to bring to bring to a group if anything?

Please contact us if interested, so we can get an idea of initial numbers. You can also find us on Facebook or Google+ (no more!) and leave messages on these. And if you have any questions, please ask!

Cheers.

Graham.