Alice Pung

Alice Pung
Ubud Writers & Readers Festival 2012
Born	1981 Footscray, Melbourne, Victoria
Nationality	Australian of Chinese origin
Education	University of Melbourne
Notable works	Growing Up Asian in Australia Unpolished Gem
Notable awards	Non-Fiction Prize in the 2011 Western Australian Book Awards; Australian Newcomer of the Year in the 2007 Australian Book Industry Awards
Website
alicepung.com

Alice Pung (Chinese: 方佳, born 1981) is an Australian writer, editor and lawyer. Her books include the memoirs Unpolished Gem (2006) and Her Father's Daughter 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 at the University of Melbourne.

Pung was born to ethnic Teochew Chinese 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 Footscray suburb of Melbourne, Victoria and grew up in Braybrook.

Pung attended five Melbourne schools, including Christ the King College (now a joint campus of Christ the King Primary school and Caroline Chisholm Catholic College), a Catholic school for girls. She studied law at the University of Melbourne and is a practicing lawyer.

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 at the University of Iowa as a Resident in 2009.