Naoya Shiga (1883-1971) was Japan's most celebrated practitioner of shishosetsu, or autobiographical fiction, the genre that dominated Japanese literature for much of the twentieth century; during his lifetime he was described as the 'god of prose'.
Ted Goossen has translated or co-translated five works by Haruki Murakami; he is editor of The Oxford Book of Japanese Short Stories (which includes his translation of Shiga's story 'Takibi') and co-editor of Monkey Business magazine, featuring the best of contemporary Japanese literature.