Fellow Readers #6: Ubin Eoh, Frankfurt am Main
Fellow Readers is all about highlighting a new book lover from our community, their current projects and favourite reads.
I can’t say for sure when I first met Ubin Eoh. What I do remember are the touchpoints that brought us into each other’s orbit: mutual friends, growing up in Berlin, a brief professional overlap (her working in PR at Bureau N while I was still writing for online magazines), and becoming parents around the same time in 2023. There’s so much I adore about Ubin: her refreshing humor, her wit, and the way she puts personal words to universal experiences.
Now based in Frankfurt am Main, she has built a career that resists easy definition: she writes for FAZ and ZEITmagazin, teaches creative writing at the Hochschule für Gestaltung in Offenbach, and co-hosts the ZEIT podcast Und was machst du am Wochenende? with Christoph Amend. Her work fluidly moves between journalism, teaching, podcasting, and storytelling, revealing a different facet of her perspective with each medium.
Needless to say, I’m thrilled to welcome her to our Fellow Readers series. Read on for her insights into her work and favorite books.
What are you currently reading?
Ubin Eoh: I currently have around 8,000 tabs open in my head, and it's much the same with my reading. I'm reading several books at once, and unfortunately at irregular intervals: Bitter Sweet by Hattie Williams, Palo Santo by Sascha Ehlert, and Else by Katharina Zorn and Jasna Fritzi Bauer.
What role does reading play in your daily life these days?
Ubin: At the moment, reading is connected to work for me, whether it's for an upcoming interview or preparing for my university seminars, where I show my students excerpts from current literature to analyze the lingo. Reading good texts makes me quite anxious right now because it makes me self-conscious – in these moments, I find myself unoriginal and unpoetic. Probably because I'm in the middle of a lot of writing myself. But I love being surrounded by books I want to read; they remind me of the life I aspire to: free headspace and less complexity, the peace and quiet to lie down somewhere and devour a book.
Is there a particular book or author you find yourself returning to again and again?
Ubin: Oh yes, that's Paul Auster's Winter Journal. Paul Auster tells the story of his life from the perspective of his body. What have his hands experienced, how do love, aging, and injuries feel on his own body? As you read, you suddenly find yourself in the body of a three-year-old and wonder what the world looks like from knee height.
One of the many things you do is teach creative writing at the Hochschule für Gestaltung in Offenbach. If you had to sum up what you try to pass on to your students in one sentence, what would your golden rule for strong writing be?
Ubin: Find your own voice, embrace your slang, and try to connect with your true self.
Is there a piece of your own writing you’re especially proud of – and why?
Ubin: I still get goose bumps when I read a piece I wrote for ZEIT Online when I was heavily pregnant with my Jewish-Korean baby, shortly after the October 7 attacks in Israel. “Stay in my belly a little longer, Kimchi Challah.” I was so vulnerable and fearful, but also full of hope, and you can read that in every line.
Thank you so much, dear Ubin, for this wonderful insight into your book universe!
–Teresa