Featured Interview With Author Sarah Jinhee
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
Born in Seoul, I spent 17 formative years living in Malaysia, Singapore, and Canada, experiences that deeply shaped my multicultural perspective. I earned a diploma in Graphic Design and Visual Communication from Temasek Polytechnic in Singapore. Upon graduation, I launched my career at Oak 3 Films, one of Singapore’s leading production houses, where I produced a range of award-winning television dramas and infotainment series.
Eager to deepen my expertise, I later pursued film production studies at York University in Toronto and a master's program in Film Studies at Dongguk University, South Korea.
I worked to showcase my unique storytelling voice, and managed to attend various film programs. I was selected for the NAFF Film School of BIFAN 2012, Talent Campus Tokyo by Berlinale Talents & Tokyo FILMeX 2013, and the KAFA-Indonesia Co-Production Prebiz 2014.
In 2015, my Korea-China co-production project won the Project Development Grant from the Next Masters Support Program organized by Berlinale Talents Tokyo & Tokyo FILMeX, and was presented at the Busan International Film Festival’s Asian Film Market the following year.
In recent years, I have expanded into literary fiction. I just completed my first sci-fi manuscript, which received mentoring from the Incheon Fantasy Convention’s Future Film Production Program 2020. In 2022, I was selected for the New Novelist Program by the Korea Creative Content Agency, and my debut crime-thriller novel was published in South Korea in 2023. My next book, a science fiction anthology, is scheduled for release in 2026.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I have a few starting points throughout my creative life, first one is when I realized I wanted to make films after watching the film entitled “Farewell to my Concubine” by director Chen Kaige. It stirred up a powerful wave of emotions that I totally felt is what I’d like to deliver in my art as well. Then another starting point as a novelist is when covid19 hit. I lost all my source of income and I had to rediscover how I can take my stories out to the world as efficiently as possible. Filmmaking is an enoumous undertaking and it takes many people, money and time. Sometimes the story just doesn’t get made. But a book, I can write and even publish on my own. So I challenged myself to finish a story based on my original screenplay. Luckily, it was selected for the New Novelist Program by the Korea Creative Content Agency, and my first crime-thriller novel was published in South Korea in 2023. This opened doors for my literary journey.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
Some of my favorite authors are actually filmmakers who write and direct their own films. They include Chen Kaige, Wong Kar Wai, Bong Joon Ho, Denis Villeneuve, and so on. I do have a tendency to try and read up on classics and novels by acclaimed authors. Such as works by Oscar Wilde, Keigo Higashino, and Albert Camus come to mind. But I usually read factual books to learn about what is happening around the world. They include various categories of books in the field of anthropology, philosophy, economics, politics, history, humanities, etc.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
This story was born after a short trip to Beijing years ago. Something about the city’s stillness, its layers of past and present stayed with me.
It grew into a screenplay, which went on to win a Project Development Grant from Berlinale Talents Tokyo and Tokyo FILMeX in 2015. It was also selected as a Korea-China co-production project by the Korean Film Council and presented at the Busan International Film Festival’s Asian Film Market in 2016.
Now, it has found new life as my first romance novel.
I wrote this for those who are learning what it means to love, to lose, and to grow again.
May this quiet journey find you, wherever you are.
Happy reading.
TITLE: “ARABICA IN US”
A Cross-continental Story of Growth, Healing and Love by Sarah Jinhee
BOOK INTRODUCTION
After the passing of her mother, Aram leaves behind her job as a social worker, and the weight of her past in Seoul – to seek meaning in the unfamiliar streets of Beijing. There, she meets Siyu: a quiet, kind-hearted rickshaw driver with a past he rarely speaks of.
Their encounters are brief, their words few – but in each silent moment, something gentle begins to grow. As Aram finds solace in the new rhythm of her life and the challenges it brings, Siyu begins to reclaim a long-abandoned part of himself through a cross-continental journey.
Set in a city steeped in history, culture, and quiet beauty, this novel is a soft, luminous tale of grief, healing, and a love that arrives not with thunder, but in stillness.
For readers who believe that even the most delicate connection can change a life – and that sometimes, the most meaningful journeys begin with loss.
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