A perfect Sunday with... Jihyun Yun

Every week, a top writer, artist, actor or creator reveals how they’d fill their perfect Sunday, sharing their favourite comfort reads, movies, food… anything that would make their weekend great.

Today, it's the turn of the author of And the River Drags Her Down, Jihyun Yun!

Jihyun's perfect Sunday… brunch

I’m soup girl through and through and can (and often do) eat it for every meal of the day. My first choice Sunday brunch would be a good bowl of pho and some Vietnamese iced coffee with condensed milk. Though I do love typical brunch foods like eggs and toast, I for some reason only crave them at night. Like at 12am after a drink or two. 

Jihyun's perfect Sunday… read

I’ve been finding a lot of joy lately in reading middle-grade novels! Right now, I’m reading Accidental Demons by Clare Edge. It’s about a young witch with type 1 diabetes who keeps accidentally conjuring demons every time she tests her blood sugar. It’s delightful and cozy and heartfelt—which is exactly the type of reading experience I want to have on a Sunday in

Jihyun's perfect Sunday… comic

Archie Comics. Specifically, my extremely dog-eared issues from the nineties that I’ve read fifty times already and will likely re-read fifty times more before they completely fall apart.  

Jihyun's perfect Sunday... movie

Something whimsical and pretty. Basically, Studio Ghibli!

Jihyun's perfect Sunday... TV binge

A show I’ve been rewatching whenever I want a mood boost is Lovely Runner, which is a Korean time-traveler rom-com.

Super cute and bingeable, and I always love anything set in the 2000’s.  

Jihyun's perfect Sunday… podcast

I don’t follow any podcast particularly closely, but I do occasionally tune in for Rotten Mango which is a true crime podcast. 

Jihyun's perfect Sunday… album

Though I normally choose my day’s playlist depending on the weather, some go-to relax albums are Geography by Tom Misch or Nonadaptation by Se So Neon

Jihyun's perfect Sunday… treat

I suppose this depends on where I am and what season it is, but since I’m currently wintering in Seoul, I’ll go with that. My perfect Seoul winter treat is waking up late and taking the train to Euljiro-3-ga to hit up one of the many retro cafes and eateries. After, I’ll stroll to the Cheongye stream, which cuts through the city, to watch the egrets wading through the shallow water, and maybe if I’m lucky, I’ll catch a busker or two singing farther upstream. In the evening, I’ll stop by at my neighborhood street food tent on the way home for fish cake skewers and a paper cup of broth. Can’t get much better than that. 

Jihyun Yun's AND THE RIVER DRAGS HER DOWN is published by Rock the Boat on 9th October 2025

A chilling debut Korean Gothic YA novel from a poet.

Soojin has always known the rules - never bring back anything larger than her palm from the dead, but that was before Mirae died...

The two Han sisters possess a secret unusual gift: the ability to reanimate the dead.

Passed down through generations, Soojin and Mirae have brought back countless creatures - though always with the warning never to resurrect anything larger than what they can hold in their palms.

But when eldest daughter Mirae is found mysteriously drowned in the river that cuts through their small coastal town, freshly grieving 17-year-old Soojin can’t resist the impulse to bring her beloved sister back.

At first, the sisters delight in their reunion. But after their sleepy all-American town is engulfed by a series of harrowing, unusual deaths, Soojin is forced to reckon with the fact that perhaps the sister she brought back isn’t the one she knew.

JIHYUN YUN is the author of the poetry collection Some Are Always Hungry. Her work has appeared in Best New Poets, AAWW The Margins, Adroit Journal, NinthLetter, and elsewhere. She currently resides in Ann Arbor, Michigan where she writes freelance bedtime stories for oration by celebrated voices such as Camila Cabello and Sam Heughan.

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