Sarina Dahlan was born into an Indonesian family in Thailand, and immigrated to the United States at the age of twelve. While children in the west grow up on fairytales, she learned parables through ghost stories, mythologies, and Japanese manga.
A graduate of the University of California, San Diego with degrees in Psychology and Visual Arts, she has blended both disciplines in careers as an advertising producer, a corporate marketing strategist, and a writer.
Her debut novel, RESET, came out in May 2021 and became an Amazon Best Seller. It was also selected as a Once Upon a Book Club Book and one of Tor.com’s Best Books of 2021. Her second book, PRESET, which NY Times bestseller, David Brin, called “intricate, imaginative, and often surprising,” came out in May 2023 and was selected for the Unplugged Book Box. FREESET, the last of the trilogy, came out in May 2024.
She considers herself a writer of place and finds inspiration for her stories in traveling and the places she has lived. She currently resides in San Diego with her family.
Featured:
Best Seller list:
On Reset
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- #1 in Science Fiction Romance, Amazon
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- #2 in Dystopian Science Fiction, Amazon
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- #2 in Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction, Amazon
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- #2 in Romantic Action & Adventure, Amazon
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- #9 in Science Fiction, Amazon
Awards:
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- AN ECHO IN THE VINE, chosen as a winner of the San Diego Decameron Project, 2021
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- THE METAMORPHOSIS OF MAO MAO, 2nd place winner, San Diego Public Library Short Story Contest, 2019
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- Click here to watch the story performed by Write Out Loud.
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- THE METAMORPHOSIS OF MAO MAO, 2nd place winner, San Diego Public Library Short Story Contest, 2019
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- THE BENCH, Silver Honorable Mention, Writers of the Future Short Story Contest, 3rd quarter 2018.
Interviews:
On Reset
- Midday Edition Radio interview, KPBS (Radio)
- Sarina Dahlan’s ‘Reset’ Imagines A Shortcut To Peace, KPBS (Online article)
- La Mesa author explores a ‘Reset’ life in new book, the San Diego Union Tribune
- See more
On Preset
- Midday Edition Radio interview, KPBS (Radio)
- Authors Love Bookstores: Sarina Dahlan with Mysterious Galaxy, A Mighty Blaze (YouTube)
- Write and Wrong (Podcast)
- See more
On Freeset
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