MONKEY New Writing from Japan

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. Yoko 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”

“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.
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Japanese fiction in translation is exploding in popularity and winning awards -- from Yu Miri's Tokyo Ueno Station, which won a 2020 National Book Award in Translated Literature and was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year to Mieko Kawakami's Breasts and Eggs, which was also recognized as a New York Times Notable Book and TIME magazine's 10 Best Books of 2020. Japanese women writers have really taken off. MONKEY is known for championing women writers, such as Mieko Kawakami, Hiromi Ito, Hiromi Kawakami, and Kikuko Tsumura. MONKEY is a beautifully designed, full-color, large-format annual anthology, featuring graphic narratives and commissioned illustrations throughout.

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