Writer retired by a lake in Asian republic (5)
I believe the answer is:
nepal
'asian republic' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'writer retired by a lake' is the wordplay.
'writer' becomes 'pen' (I've seen this before**).
'retired' says the letters should be written backwards.
'by' says to put letters next to each other.
'lake' becomes 'l'.
'pen' written backwards gives 'nep'.
'nep'+'a'+'l'='NEPAL'
'in' is the link.
(Other definitions for nepal that I've seen before include "land" , "place in the mountains ..." , "somewhere in the Himalayas" , "World's only Hindu kingdom" , "Himalayan republic" .)