MONKEY New Writing from Japan

TED GOOSSEN teaches Japanese literature and film at York University in Toronto. He is the editor of The Oxford Book of Japanese Short Stories. He translated Haruki Murakami’s Wind/Pinball and The Strange Library, and co-translated (with Philip Gabriel) Men Without Women and Killing Commendatore. His translations of Hiromi Kawakami’s People from My Neighbourhood (Granta Books) and Naoya Shiga’s Reconciliation (Canongate) were published in 2020.MOTOYUKI SHIBATA translates American literature and runs the Japanese literary journal MONKEY. He has translated Paul Auster, Rebecca Brown, Stuart Dybek, Steve Erickson, Brian Evenson, Laird Hunt, Kelly Link, Steven Millhauser, and Richard Powers, among others. His translation of Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was a bestseller in Japan in 2018. Among his recent translations is Eric McCormack’s Cloud.

• CONTENTSThe Peach Itō Threw Rots, and She Becomes a Beast Once Againa chapter from The Thorn Puller by Hiromi ItōGood Stories Originate in the Caves of AntiquityHaruki Murakami in conversation with Mieko KawakamiThe Razor, a story by Naoya Shiga, with remarks by film director Hirokazu KoreedaFujito: Victims of War, from the modern Japanese translation of a Noh play by Seikō ItōThe Visitor, a graphic narrative by Jon Klassen. text by Yōko Ogawa----------------------------------------------------------------FOOD A Monkey’s Dozen Something Sweet, a story by Hiroko OyamadaDinner at Mine, an essay by Tomoka ShibasakiSushi, a story by Kanoko OkamotoThe Heart of the Lunchbox, a graphic story by Satoshi KitamuraNori and Eggs for Breakfast, an essay by Kuniko MukōdaForest of the Ronpa, a story by Kyōhei SakaguchiTurtledoves, a story by Naoya ShigaSeven Modern Poets on Food, selected and translated by Andrew CampanaThe Goose, a story by Barry YourgrauMisaki, a story by Sachiko KishimotoDissecting Misogyny, a story by Aoko Matsuda----------------------------------------------------------------Counterfeiting García Márquez, a story by Hideo FurukawaSimone + Reminiscing, vignettes by Hiromi KawakamiA Tired Town, a story by Steven MillhauserFive Prose Poems by Makoto TakayanagiFinding Mother, an essay by Jeffrey AnglesWhy hasn’t this been translated?: Remarks from nine translatorsContributorsCredits

“Novelists Haruki Murakami and Mieko Kawakami make plans to meet in a cave, trade stories, and roast rats over a campfire. A few pages later, director Hirokazu Koreeda revisits a favorite story by Naoya Shiga, about a barber whose murderous outburst reminds him of Raymond Carver’s writing and inspired his own cinematic ideas. Yōko Ogawa narrates a haunting sequence of illustrations by Canadian artist Jon Klassen. Aoko Matsuda shows us how to physically dissect a misogynist. And that’s before you get to a Noh play, haiku and tanka poems, and the sketches, photographs, and manga of a themed section on the allure of food.”—Roland Kelts, Nikkei Asia“An astonishment, by turns playful and profound, that makes you wish it were monthly.”—Junot Diaz, author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao“MONKEY is full of deep, funny, wild, scary, fabulous, moving, surprising, brilliant work.”—Laird Hunt, author of Neverhome