Author · Speaker · Writing Teacher
She came to Korea to study international relations. She stayed to understand them.
— Rice Paper Window
Christabel
Choi
크리스타벨 허드슨 최 · 許水晶
Featured Book
Rice Paper Window
A Memoir · Seoul, 1989
Christabel Choi lived in Seoul, South Korea in 1989 as a student of International Relations, boarding at a Buddhist temple on the mountain above the university. She soon found herself the only woman in the company of men in a Buddhist temple boarding house: as an honorary little brother. At the university over the mountain, her classmates led the dangerous fight to bring a decisive end to martial law. The next eight months passed in constant tension between the fight for democracy and the peace of the mountain and temple. She hoped the police would never find the classroom reading she’d innocently brought from America for a Soviet studies course: The Communist Manifesto. Dangerously illegal in South Korea, the book lay hidden in her small room.
Buy Online
At your local bookstore or library
Rice Paper Window is distributed through Ingram — your local independent bookstore can order it, and your public library can request it too. Just ask at the desk, or use the links below to request online.
Reviews
What readers are saying
“I will read it again… and again… and again.”
Storm Lake · Publishing Designer · 5 Stars“Nostalgic for a place and time I’ve never been.”
Verified Reader · Author“It doesn’t just remind you of how things were — it reminds you how it felt.”
Dr. Thomas Duvernay, Ph.D. · Historian · Yeungnam University, Korea“A valuable book of wisdom for all who are interested in Korean culture.”
법현스님 · Monk Beopbyeon Seunim · Abbot, Yongamsa Temple · Dongguk University“Brings us into a unique and enigmatic world of contradictions.”
Dr. Ron Dziwenka, Ph.D. · Historian · Salisbury University · 5 Stars“Charming, upbeat, and fascinating.”
Verified Reader · 5 Stars“A deeply intimate and personal telling, rich in meaning.”
Verified Reader · 5 Stars“I learned about Korean culture, history and being the other through the eyes of a young woman.”
Ellen · Barnes & Noble · 5 Stars“Each vignette is a gem.”
Mita Radhakrishnan · Auroville Language Laboratory · IndiaHover to pause · click dots to navigate
“문화의 다리 — A cultural bridge”
Paper Angel Press에서 출판된 이 잊을 수 없는 회상록은 성년이 되는 감수성이 예민한 젊은 여인과 수십년간의 식민지 생활, 전쟁 그리고 독재 체재로부터 평화, 민주주의 그리고 번영으로 가기 위해 투쟁하는 나라의 초상화를 잇는 문화의 다리다.
This unforgettable memoir is a cultural bridge — connecting the portrait of a young woman coming of age with a nation struggling toward peace, democracy, and prosperity after decades of dictatorship.
Read the article → Toggle “English” (top left) for translationFor review copies, interview requests, or media inquiries, visit the press kit page or contact Christabel directly.
About Christabel
A writer who traces fractal connections
between people, places, and time —
microscopic, local, and international
I grew up in rural Oregon in a close family from four continents, which may explain why I have always been most at home at the places where worlds meet. I am now settled in the San Francisco Bay Area with my husband and alternately one or all of our three grown children.
My office holds bows, arrows, horse tack, piles of books and scattered projects, someone’s small dog, and a possible cat. I am currently at work on one of my next books — an historical fiction novel set in the 13th-century world of the Golden Horde. My motto is to leave it better than I found it — except for my office, where maintenance is a noble enough goal.
California, 2025
On a hike in the Siskiyou mountains as a teenager, I watched a dragonfly emerge from its mottled grey shell. I recognized nature telling a story — with a lesson that has shaped everything I bring to my writing, teaching, and presentations. My art is to draw out powerful and beautiful stories, regardless of the shells they may hide within.
Workshops & Speaking
Bring my stories —
and my craft — to your audience
I offer talks, workshops, and panel appearances for conferences, universities, literary festivals, libraries, and organizations. My experience spans years of teaching at Yonsei University in Korea; at tech companies and the Korean embassy in Paris; at libraries, universities, and schools across California; and for scientists at sea. I am now at work on a historical novel, turning my private journals into published memoir — and helping others do the same.
Speaking
Talks on historical memoir, cross-cultural identity, the craft of storytelling, and much more. Available for literary festivals, conferences, and institutional events.
Check Availability →Workshops & Teaching
Intensive workshops in memoir and narrative non-fiction — from first journal entries to final manuscript. I draw on my own process of transforming a personal journal into published history.
Work with Christabel →Panels & Classes
Guest appearances in university courses and on literary panels. Themes include Korean history, the memoir form, women traveling alone, and writing across cultural difference.
Check Availability →Get in touch
Whether you’d like to book an event, ask about workshops, or simply reach out — I personally read all correspondence and respond within a few days.
Dispatches
Occasional Dispatches
from the field, the desk,
the mind, and the imagination
Occasional dispatches — readings, workshops, journal, ideas and whatever connections I am currently chasing down some rabbit hole. No noise.
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