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For readers who love Haruki Murakami and want to be introduced to other exciting contemporary Japanese writers, especially women writers.
MONKEY New Writing from Japan showcases the best of contemporary Japanese literature. This first issue celebrates food and was published during the first year of the pandemic. It includes short fiction and poetry by writers such as Mieko Kawakami, Haruki Murakami, Hideo Furukawa, Hiromi Kawakami, Aoko Matsuda, and Kyohei Sakaguchi; new translations of modern classics; graphic narratives by Satoshi Kitamura and Jon Klassen; and contributions from American writers such as Steven Millhauser and Barry Yourgrau.
“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
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.
CONTENTS
The Peach Itō Threw Rots, and She Becomes a Beast Once Again
a chapter from The Thorn Puller by Hiromi Itō
Good Stories Originate in the Caves of Antiquity
Haruki Murakami in conversation with Mieko Kawakami
The Razor, a story by Naoya Shiga, with remarks by film director Hirokazu Koreeda
Fujito: Victims of War, from the modern Japanese translation of a Noh play by Seikō Itō
The Visitor, a graphic narrative by Jon Klassen. text by Yōko Ogawa
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FOOD A Monkey’s Dozen
Something Sweet, a story by Hiroko Oyamada
Dinner at Mine, an essay by Tomoka Shibasaki
Sushi, a story by Kanoko Okamoto
The Heart of the Lunchbox, a graphic story by Satoshi Kitamura
Nori and Eggs for Breakfast, an essay by Kuniko Mukōda
Forest of the Ronpa, a story by Kyōhei Sakaguchi
Turtledoves, a story by Naoya Shiga
Seven Modern Poets on Food, selected and translated by Andrew Campana
The Goose, a story by Barry Yourgrau
Misaki, a story by Sachiko Kishimoto
Dissecting Misogyny, a story by Aoko Matsuda
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Counterfeiting García Márquez, a story by Hideo Furukawa
Simone + Reminiscing, vignettes by Hiromi Kawakami
A Tired Town, a story by Steven Millhauser
Five Prose Poems by Makoto Takayanagi
Finding Mother, an essay by Jeffrey Angles
Why hasn’t this been translated?: Remarks from nine translators
Contributors
Credits