Monkey New Writing From Japan - Volume 1: Food

For readers who love Haruki Murakami and want to be introduced to other exciting contemporary Japanese writers, especially women writers

List of contents

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

About the author

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.

Summary

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.

Foreword

The target market is readers of Japanese contemporary literature — a market that’s exploded in recent years, beyond Haruki Murakami fans. Four of the New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2020 were novels from Japan, and two of TIME magazine’s 10 Best Fiction Books of 2020 were written (and translated) by MONKEY regulars: Mieko Kawakami’s Breasts and Eggs and Aoko Matsuda’s Where the Wild Ladies Are. Our primary market is the United States, but also Canada, the UK, and English readers in Japan.

 We send review copies to major media and Japan-related organizations.

Additional text

“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  

Product details

• Authors: Ted Shibata Goossen
• Assisted by: Ted Goossen (Editor), Motoyuki Shibata (Editor)
• Publisher: Stone Bridge Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Release: 09.11.2021, delayed
• EAN: 9780997248067
• ISBN: 978-0-9972480-6-7
• No. of pages: 152
• Series: MONKEY New Writing from Japan
• Subjects: Fiction > Narrative literature; FICTION / Anthologies (multiple authors), COOKING / Regional & Ethnic / Japanese, LITERARY COLLECTIONS / Asian / Japanese