Monkey Business International Volume 5

Monkey Business International is the in-translation offspring of the Tokyo-based magazine Monkey Business, which was founded in 2008 by Motoyuki Shibata, one of Japan’s most highly regarded men of letters.

MBI aims to translate and present a wide array of established and emerging authors, showcasing the best of contemporary Japanese literature.

With the generous support of the Nippon Foundation, A Public Space is the publisher and partner of Monkey Business International. MB and APS first conceived of MBI when Shibata curated a portfolio of Japanese literature in the debut issue of APS.

Issue 5 kicks off with “Photographs are Images”, a vignette by Aoko Matsuda, one of Japan’s most promising young novelists. Haruki Murakami graces the pages of Monkey once more, this time offering advice for new and aspiring young writers. American and British authors such as Kelly Link, Liard Hunt, and Matthew Sharpe join Japanese authors Hideo Furukawa, Masatsugu Ono, and Hiromi Kawakami; along with comic and graphic artists Satoshi Kitamura and Ben Katchor. These and many more of the best contemporary voices of Japanese and American literature make up the lyrical and literary prose of this newest issue of Monkey Business.