Theodore William Goossen

Theodore W. Goossen is a professor emeritus of contemporary Japanese literature at York University in Toronto, Canada. He is known for translating the works of a number of Japanese authors into English, most notably Haruki Murakami. Other authors he has translated include Shiga Naoya and Ibuse Masuji.

Early life and career When he was nineteen, Goossen went to Japan for his third year of college, where he lived with homestay family and learned the Japanese language. There, he witnessed the 1968–1969 Japanese university protests.

While working at the University of Tokyo, Goossen met Motoyuki Shibata, a frequent collaborator of Murakami's. Together, they co-edit Monkey Business International: New Writing from Japan, a journal of Japanese literature translated into English, with several pieces taken from the original Monkey Business, Shibata's Japanese-language quarterly. The international edition has featured several pieces by Haruki Murakami, as well as the first excerpts of Hiromi Kawakami's People From My Neighborhood.