Alice Pung (born 1981) is an Australian writer, editor and lawyer. Her books include the memoirs ''Unpolished Gem'' (2006), ''Her Father's Daughter'' (2011) and the novel ''Laurinda'' (2014). Pung is a practising solicitor. She has also worked as an art instructor, independent school teacher at primary and secondary schools and is Artist in Residence at

Janet Clarke Hall Janet Clarke Hall (JCH) is a residential college of the University of Melbourne in Australia. The college is associated with the Anglican Province of Victoria. JCH is one of the smallest of the colleges of the university and was the first univ ...

at the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb nor ...

Life

Pung was born to ethnic Teochew

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...

parents from Cambodia. Fleeing the killing fields of the Khmer Rouge, her parents sought asylum in Australia in 1980. Pung was named Alice after the protagonist of ''Alice in Wonderland'', because her father saw Australia as a wonderland. She was born in the suburb of Footscray in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

and grew up in Braybrook. Pung attended five Melbourne schools, including the Catholic junior girls school Christ the King College in Braybrook (now the junior girls campus of

Caroline Chisholm Catholic College Caroline Chisholm Catholic College is a Roman Catholic co-educational day school for years 7-12 located in the western suburb of Braybrook, Victoria, Braybrook in Melbourne, Australia. The college was founded in 1997 by the amalgamation of three ...

Penleigh and Essendon Grammar School Penleigh: la, Ad Altiora , motto_translation = Essendon: Strength through knowledge;Penleigh: To higher things , location = Essendon, Moonee Ponds, Keilor Park & Keilor East, Victoria , country = Austral ...

and

Mac.Robertson Girls' High School , motto_translation = Mastery of self , established = , type = Government-funded single-sex selective secondary day school , principal = Sue Harrap , location = South Melbourne, Victoria , country = Australia , coordi ...

. Pung studied law at the

and is a practising lawyer.

Writing career

Pung's first book, ''Unpolished Gem'', won the 2007 Newcomer of the Year Award in the Australian Book Industry Awards. Her follow-up memoir, ''Her Father's Daughter'', was published in 2011. Her first book for young adults, ''Laurinda'' was published in 2014. It was adapted for an American audience in 2016, and a collection of high school students' stories inspired by the novel was published in 2016. Pung has also written the ''Marly'' books for the ''Our Australian Girl'' children's series. Pung attended the

International Writing Program The International Writing Program (IWP) is a writing residency for international artists in Iowa City, Iowa. Since 2014, the program offers online courses to many writers and poets around the world. Since its inception in 1967, the IWP has hosted o ...

at the University of Iowa as a Resident in 2009. She is a regular writer for

The Monthly ''The Monthly'' is an Australian national magazine of politics, society and the arts, which is published eleven times per year on a monthly basis except the December/January issue. Founded in 2005, it is published by Melbourne property developer ...

on topics such as race discrimination, class, cultural stereotypes, and experiences of living in Melbourne, Victoria. In November 2020 the

Melbourne Theatre Company The Melbourne Theatre Company is a theatre company based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1953 as the Union Theatre Repertory Company at the Union Theatre at the University of Melbourne, it is the oldest professional theatre compa ...

announced that it will adapt Pung's novel, ''Laurinda'', for the stage.

Bibliography

Books

*''Unpolished Gem.'' (Black Inc., 2006) *''

Growing Up Asian in Australia Growing up Asian in Australia is an anthology of short stories, essays, poetry, interviews, and comic art edited by Melbourne author and lawyer Alice Pung and published by Black Inc publishing in 2008. It is the first in the ''Growing up in Au ...

'' (Black Inc., 2008) (editor) * * ''Laurinda'' (Penguin Australia, 2014) (published as ''Lucy and Linh'' in the United States, 2016) *''Our Australian Girl: Meet Marly: Our Australian Girl,'' illustrated by Lucia Masciullo (Puffin, 2015) *''Our Australian Girl: Marly's Business,'' illustrated by Lucia Masciullo (Puffin, 2015) *''Our Australian Girl: Marly and the Goat,'' illustrated by Lucia Masciullo (Puffin, 2015) *''Our Australian Girl: Marly Walks on the Moon,'' illustrated by Lucia Masciullo (Puffin, 2016) *''My First Lesson: Stories Inspired by Laurinda'' (2016) *''John Marsden: Writers on Writers'' (2017) *''Close to Home'' (Black Inc., 2018) *''One Hundred Days'' (Black Inc., 2021)

Articles

"A sacrifice shouldered, a loyalty pledged beyond words"
30 September 2007 ''

The Age ''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria (Australia), Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Austral ...

''
"Shunned in a strange land, we should offer them more"
17 August 2008 ''

''
"It's time to embrace the 'f' word"
28 October 2008 ''

''
Living With Racism in Australia
7 December 2016 ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

Critical studies and reviews of Pung's work

''Her Father's Daughter'' (2011) * * Brewster, Anne (2017) Remembering Violence in Alice Pung’s Her Father’s Daughter: The Postmemoir and Diasporisation, Life Writing, 14:3, 313-325, DOI: 10.1080/14484528.2017.1328298 ''Growing Up Asian in Australia'' (editor, 2008) * Graham, Pamela (2013) Alice Pung's Growing up Asian in Australia: The Cultural Work of Anthologized Asian-Australian Narratives of Childhood, Prose Studies, 35:1, 67-83, DOI: 10.1080/01440357.2013.781412 ''Unpolished Gem'' (2006) * Ommundsen, Wenche (2010) Writing as Cultural Negotiation: Suneeta Peres da Costa and Alice Pung. In: Collett A., D’Arcens L. (eds) The Unsociable Sociability of Women’s Lifewriting. Palgrave Macmillan, London. * D'Arcangelo, Adele. (2014) Unpolished Gem/Gemma impura the Journey from Australia to Italy of Alice Pung’s Bestselling Novel. Journal of the Association for the Study of Australian Literature, .l. v. 14, n. 1, june. ISSN 1833-6027. Available at: https://openjournals.library.sydney.edu.au/index.php/JASAL/article/view/9877.

Awards and recognition

In the

2022 Australia Day Honours The 2022 Australia Day Honours are appointments to various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by Australian citizens. The list was announced on 26 January 2022 by the Governor General of Australia, David Hurley. The Australia ...

Pung was awarded the

Medal of the Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, on the advice of the Australian Gove ...

for service to literature.

''Unpolished Gem''

* Winner of the Australian Newcomer of the Year award in the 2007 Australian Book Industry Awards * Shortlisted in the Australian Biography of the Year and Australian Book of the Year in the 2007 Australian Book Industry Awards * Shortlisted in the 2007 New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards * Shortlisted in the 2007 Victorian Premier's Literary Awards * Shortlisted in the 2007 ''

'' Book of the Year Awards * Shortlisted for the 2006 Colin Roderick Award * Shortlisted for the 2007 The Westfield/Waverley Library Award for Literature

''Her Father's Daughter''

* Winner of the Non-Fiction Prize in the 2011 Western Australian Book Awards * Shortlisted in the 2012 Victorian Premier's Literary Awards *Shortlisted in the 2012 NSW Premier's Literary Awards *Shortlisted in the 2012 Queensland Literary Awards

''Laurinda''

* 2016 Ethel Turner Prize for Young People's Literature (NSW Premier's Literary Awards)

''One Hundred Days''

* Shortlisted in the 2022

Miles Franklin Award The Miles Franklin Literary Award is an annual literary prize awarded to "a novel which is of the highest literary merit and presents Australian life in any of its phases". The award was set up according to the will of Miles Franklin (1879–195 ...

* Shortlisted for the 2022

Voss Literary Prize The Voss Literary Prize is an annual award named in honour of historian Vivian Robert de Vaux Voss (1930–1963). It is awarded to the best novel published in the previous year and is managed and judged by the Australian University Heads of Engli ...

References

External links

* *
Alice Pung
''Conversations'' with

Richard Fidler Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from Old Frankish and is a compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' and ''*hardu-'' 'strong, brave, hardy', and it therefore means 'strong ...

(5 November 2014)
Tips on writing videoAlice Pung talks about her works
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pung, Alice 1981 births Living people Australian memoirists Australian women novelists Recipients of the Medal of the Order of Australia Australian people of Chinese descent Australian solicitors Australian women lawyers International Writing Program alumni Australian women memoirists Writers from Melbourne People educated at Penleigh and Essendon Grammar School People from Braybrook, Victoria People educated at Mac.Robertson Girls' High School