Ted Goossen

Founding Editor

TED GOOSSEN is a literary translator, professor emeritus at York University in Toronto, and one of the founding editors of Monkey Business and MONKEY New Writing from Japan. 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 Neighborhood and Naoya Shiga’s Reconciliation were published in 2020. His translation of the story collection Dragon Palace by Hiromi Kawakami was published under the Monkey imprint with Stone Bridge Press in 2023. His translations of Murakami, Shiga, Kawakami, and others are featured in Monkey Business and MONKEY.

Photo credit: YCAR

Motoyuki Shibata

Founding Editor

MOTOYUKI SHIBATA translates American literature and runs the Japanese literary journal MONKEY and its offspring, MONKEY New Writing from Japan. He has translated Paul Auster, Rebecca Brown, Stuart Dybek, Brian Evenson, Laird Hunt, Kelly Link, and Steven Millhauser, among many others. Recent translations include Paul Auster’s 4321, Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, and Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll. He is professor emeritus at the University of Tokyo. 

Illustration Credit: Satomi Shimabukuro

Meg Taylor

Managing Editor

MEG TAYLOR is the founder of the nonprofit MONKEY New Writing from Japan, based in Pittsburgh. She edits literature in translation, mostly Japanese fiction but also literature translated from other Asian languages. The first editorial director of the Art Canada Institute in Toronto, she continues to edit art books and exhibition catalogues.

Photo credit: Katie Brook

Roland Nozomu Kelts

Contributing Editor

ROLAND NOZOMU KELTS is an award-winning journalist and the author of Japanamerica: How Japanese Pop Culture has Invaded the US and The Art of Blade Runner: Black Lotus. He writes for publications in the US, Japan and Europe, including The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Guardian, New Statesman, The Times Literary Supplement, Nikkei Asia and The Japan Times, among others, and has contributed to several book-length collections. He was a Nieman Fellow in Journalism at Harvard University and teaches part-time at Waseda University in Tokyo. He is currently filming a documentary about manga pioneer Osamu Tezuka.

Photo credit: Lisa Kato

Tiff Joshua TJ Ferentini

Marketing Manager

TIFF JOSHUA TJ FERENTINI is a writer, editor, translator, and voice actor. They are an editor for Kodansha Comics at Penguin Random House, a Lambda Literary Emerging Writers Fellow, a GrubStreet Novel Immersive for LGBTQ+ Writers Fellow, and co-editor of Fat & Queer: An Anthology of Queer and Trans Bodies and Lives (Jessica Kingsley Publishers). TJ’s writing has appeared in The Gambler, Off the Rocks: An Anthology of GLBT Writing (NewTown Writers Press), and Songs of My Selfie: An Anthology of Millennial Writing (Three Rooms Press) and elsewhere. https://tjferentini.carrd.co/

Kaori Drome

Graphic Designer / Web

KAORI DROME is a graphic designer and art director based in Denver, Colorado. Originally from Fukuoka, Japan, she holds a BFA in Graphic Design from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. Her practice focuses on branding and identity. www.kaoridrome.com

Sayaka Toyama

Event Coordinator

SAYAKA TOYAMA was born in Nagano, Japan, and studied writing and literature at Emerson College in Boston. After working for the New York studio of Japanese artist Takashi Murakami, she founded Curious Corners in 2014 as the anchor for her various projects to promote Japanese culture through art, design, literature, and textiles. She also serves as the consulting director of Seizan Gallery New York.