Jeong Seonjae was born in Gangneung in 1960. She graduated from Gangneung Girls' High School and Korea University and began her journalism career at Yonhap Press. She ran the cultural beat at the founding of Hankyoreh and was editor in chief for the first five years of Cine 21. She retired from journalism in 2000 to concentrate on writing.

Her books include the essay collection In the Jungle I'm Occasionally A Hyena, the novel Passion and Anxiety, and the short story collection Days of Brilliant Sunshine. She was head of the Korean Film Archive (2006~2009) and ran the Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture (2012~2016). She has published a non-fiction book on classic Korean film titled Classics Addiction. She started her novel Three Women in 2005, but her two public appointments delayed its completion for twelve years.