Hiromi Kawakami & Adam Ehrlich Sachs in Conversation, moderated by Motoyuki Shibata
(University of Pittsburgh, 4/10/2024)

Author Reading and Signing Event
with Hiromi Kawakami & Ted Goossen
(Kinokuniya New York, 4/7/2024)

Hiromi Kawakami & Kelly Link in Conversation,
moderated by Motoyuki Shibata
(SEIZAN Gallery New York, 4/6/2024)

Motoyuki Shibata & Sawako Nakayasu Reading at Brown University
(Brown University, 4/4/2024)

Emma Trowbridge composed the music and created this video of Satoshi Kitamura's "The Overcoat" from MONKEY, vol. 2.

Music by Emma Trowbridge

Launch of MONKEY New Writing from Japan,
Volume 4: Music
(Japan Society of Boston, Boston, MA, 12/5/2023)

The (virtual) launch of MONKEY New Writing from Japan, Volume 4: Music, hosted by contributing editor Roland Kelts and featuring Motoyuki Shibata, the founder and editor of MONKEY, and Satoshi Kitamura, the author and illustrator who is a regular contributor to MONKEY. Satoshi illustrated the cover for vol. 4. Includes the presentation of an unpublished graphic story by Satoshi, and a reading by Roland and Moto of "Transformers: Pianos," translated by Laurel Taylor.

NCTA workshop “Food in Contemporary Japanese Literature”
(University of Pittsburgh, 10/25/2023)

Motoyuki Shibata, founder and editor of MONKEY, and Kendall Heitzman, associate professor at the University of Iowa, recorded this moving and informative video about Hideo Furukawa’s “The Little Woods in Fukushima,” a chapter from the memoir Zero F, which appeared in vol. 3 of MONKEY, translated by Prof. Heitzman. They discuss 3/11 and its impact on Furukawa’s family, who are shiitake farmers in Fukushima. Furukawa is a novelist, but he wrote this powerful and deeply personal memoir after walking for more than 200 miles through Fukushima during the summer of 2020, interviewing people who suffered from the triple disaster, almost a decade earlier.

Vocarium Reading Series: Hiromi Itō & Lynn Xu
(Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 2/13/2023)

Houghton Library at Harvard University hosted an awe-inspiring reading by two major literary innovators: Hiromi Itō, author of The Thorn Puller (2022) and Killing Konoko (Action Books, 2009), and Lynn Xu, author of Those Ashen Heaps That Cantilevered Vase of Moonlight (Wave, 2022). Introduced by Sawako Nakayasu (author of Pink Waves, 2023), this event also featured award-winning translator Jeffrey Angles, who performed with Itō. 

Removing the Thorns of Human Suffering
The Thorn Puller event at City of Asylum
Performance by author Hiromi Ito and translator Jeffrey Angles
(City of Asylum Bookstore, Pittsburgh, PA, 2/26/2023)

Award-winning author Hiromi Itō and her translator, Jeffrey Angles, present a reading of The Thorn Puller, her first novel to appear in English. In a starred review in Foreword, Eileen Gonzalez wrote: "With ruthless honesty and wicked humor … Her observations on life, death, and the in-between make for a fearless look at what every adult in every country must face: growing older as their loved ones do too."

Launch of MONKEY New Writing from Japan,
Volume 2: Travel
(White Whale Bookstore, Pittsburgh, PA, 3/4/2022)

The (virtual) launch of MONKEY New Writing from Japan, Volume 2: Travel, featuring contributors Aoko Matsuda, Polly Barton, and Adam Ehrlich Sachs, with editor and founder Motoyuki Shibata and managing editor Meg Taylor. After Moto interviews Aoko and Polly, they read "The Most Boring Shade of Red." Meg interviews Adam about his experience being translated by Aoko and published in the Japanese edition of MONKEY, and the importance of translated fiction to his own work.

TAC Talk: MONKEY
(Tokyo American Club, 5/26/2021)

Moderated by MONKEY founder and editor Motoyuki Shibata. Featuring Tomoka Shibasaki and her translator, Polly Barton. And Hideo Furukawa and his translator, Jordan Smith. Interpreting by Hiromi Yoshio.

MIWF Memory Project: Japan Through the Eyes of a Monkey (Rumata Artspace, 12/17/2020)

MONKEY ‘travelled’ to Indonesia! The Makassar International Writers Festival celebrated the virtual launch of MONKEY New Writing From Japan with MONKEY founder and editor Motoyuki Shibata, contributing editor Roland Kelts, poet Hiromi Itō, and author/illustrator Satoshi Kitamura. Moderated by Maesy Ang (Post Santa Bookshop, Indonesia).

(virtual) New York launch of MONKEY
New Writing from Japan
(ignition gallery, 12/12/2020)

The (virtual) New York launch of the literary journal MONKEY New Writing from Japan, moderated by contributing editor Roland Kelts in Tokyo on December 12, 2020. After the introduction with founding editor Motoyuki Shibata, Hiroko Oyamada and her translator, David Boyd, read a passage from "Something Sweet." (Interpreting by Hiromi Yoshio.) Satoshi Kitamura performed two kamishibai: a trailer for "The Heart of the Lunchbox," a graphic story featured in MONKEY 2020, and "The Cave." The discussion touched on many issues in translating contemporary fiction from Japanese.

Launch of MONKEY New Writing from Japan
(Waseda University, 10/10/2020)

The virtual launch of the literary journal MONKEY New Writing from Japan, hosted by Prof. Hitomi Yoshio at Waseda University in Tokyo on October 10, 2020. After the editors’ panel (Motoyuki Shibata, Ted Goossen, Roland Kelts, and Meg Taylor), Hideo Furukawa and his translator, Jordan Smith, performed a passage from “Counterfeiting García Márquez” and Tomoka Shibasaki and her translator, Polly Barton, read the essay “Dinner at Mine.” Satoshi Kitamura performed a kamishibai trailer for “The Heart of the Lunchbox,” a graphic story featured in MONKEY 2020.

① Readings by Hideo Furukawa & Jordan Smith (Waseda University, 10/10/2020)

Hideo Furukawa and his translator, Jordan Smith, perform a passage from “Counterfeiting García Márquez.”

② Readings by Tomoka Shibasaki & Polly Barton
(Waseda University, 10/10/2020)

Tomoka Shibasaki and her translator, Polly Barton, read the essay “Dinner at Mine.”

③ Performance by Satoshi Kitamura
(Waseda University, 10/10/2020)

Satoshi Kitamura performs a kamishibai trailer for “The Heart of the Lunchbox,” a graphic story featured in MONKEY VOL. 1.

Listen to Hideo Furukawa and Jordan Smith performing a lively reading of a passage from “Counterfeiting García Márquez,” with moderator Roland Kelts. Excerpted from the virtual launch of MONKEY on October 10, 2020, hosted by Hitomi Yoshio at Waseda University in Tokyo.