Alice Pung

Alice Pung is an Australian writer, editor, and lawyer. In the 2022 Australia Day Honours, Pung received the Medal of the Order of Australia in recognition of their contributions to the field of literature.

Alice Pung was born in Footscray, Victoria. Her parents are ethnic Teochew Chinese from Cambodia. Alice’s father, Kuan — a survivor of Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge regime — named her after Lewis Carroll’s character.

Pung studied law at the University of Melbourne and works as a legal analyst.

Alice Pung’s first book, Unpolished Gem (2006), was an Australian bestseller and won the Australian Book Industry Newcomer of the Year Award.

Unpolished Gem came out in the UK and USA in separate editions and has been translated into several languages, including Italian, German, and Indonesian.

Her next book, Her Father’s Daughter (2011), won the Western Australia Premier’s Award for Non-Fiction.

The YA novel Laurinda (2014) won the NSW Premiers Award Ethel Turner Prize in 2016. Her most recent adult fiction, One Hundred Days (2021), was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin and Voss literary awards and has recently been optioned to be made into a film by Michelle Law.

Alice also edited the collections Growing Up Asian in Australia and My First Lesson. Her writing has appeared in the Monthly, the Age, The Best Australian Stories, and The Best Australian Essays.

Her book for children includes the Marly books from the Our Australian Girl series, When Granny Came to Stay, and the bilingual picture book, illustrated by Sher Rill Ng, Be Careful, Xiao Xin!

Alice Pung lives with her family in Melbourne.

Photo credit: www.alicepung.net