Introductions: So, There Is A Place Called SEA (Southeast Asia and SF/F)

If you want to be politically aware or saavy, the member states of ASEAN (Associaton of Southeast Asian Nations) are Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, the Phillippines, Brunei, Burma (Myanmar), Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam.  ASEAN spreads over a region with diverse, complex and vivid cultures and ethnicities. It is also a region where migrations and intermingling of cultures and identities play an important role.

Phew, now that just sounded like one of my lessons in school. But there you have it:  Southeast Asia, explained in gist.

Now, in Southeast Asia, we do have science fiction and science fiction writers. I hate to make lists, because I am bound to miss out someone and omit contributions vital to the whole picture. So, I will only mention Southeast Asian publications and anthologies such as The Ayam Curtain (Singapore), LONTAR (Singapore), Fish Eats Lion (Singapore), Buku Fixi (Malaysia), Gagas Media (Indonesia) and Philippines Speculative Fiction (the Philippines). In between all these publications are books, novels and graphic novels written by Southeast Asian authors and writers, not to mention the short stories in notable online magazines like Strange Horizons and Crossed Genres. We have writers who are now rising stars in the SFF field.

There you go. A broad picture of science fiction and fantasy in Southeast Asia. It is still growing strong and diverse in all the different countries.

Since I have your ear, Jaymee Goh and I are co-editors of The SEA IS OURS, a Southeast Asian steampunk anthology. So expect Southeast Asian steampunk written by Southeast Asian writers and writers of Southeast Asian descent. Our publisher is William Campbell of Rosarium Publishing.

Expand your reading experiences. We, the science fiction writers of Southeast Asia, are here to stay.

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Joyce Chng writes science fiction, steampunk, urban fantasy and things in between. Her fiction has been published in publications such as Crossed Genres, the Apex Book of World SF II, and The Alchemy Press Book of Urban Mythic.   She co-edited The Ayam Curtain, a Singaporean anthology of SFF micro fiction. She blogs at A Wolf’s Tale: http://awolfstale.wordpress.com.  She is interested in social justice, feminism and its intersectionalities, permaculture and bread-making. She is co-editor for The SEA IS OURS (http://www.rosariumpublishing.com/rosarium-the-sea-is-ours.html).