First They Killed My Father_ A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers - Loung Ung [124]
First They Killed My Father: a Daughter of Cambodia Remembers, her first book, became a national bestseller and won the 2001 Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association award for “Excellence in Adult Non-fiction Literature.” The memoir has been published in eleven countries and has been translated into German, Dutch, Norwegian, Danish, French, Spanish, Italian, Cambodian, and Japanese.
Loung describes her writing process this way: “I handwrite the story in my journal, then flesh it out on the computer.” She relies on an improbable source of inspiration while writing: “Long grain, white rice. Rice is my homing device and my security blanket. When I travel or work on a book I must have at least one bowl of rice every day. Where there is rice, I feel at home.”
A featured speaker on Cambodia, child soldiers, and land mines, Loung also serves as spokesperson for the Cambodia Fund—a program that supports centers in Cambodia that help disabled war victims and survivors of land mines. She has been the spokesperson for the Campaign for a Landmine Free World (1997–2003) and the Community Educator for the Abused Women’s Advocacy Project of the Maine Coalition against Domestic Violence.
“[Loung] relies on an improbable source of inspiration while writing: ‘Long grain, white rice. I must have at least one bowl of rice every day. Where there is rice, I feel at home.’”
“‘I have tiny hands and fingers, which allow me to fold little paper cranes and other creatures.’”
Loung has spoken widely to schools, universities, corporations, and symposia in the United States and abroad (including the UN Conference on Women in Beijing, the UN Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa, and the Child Soldiers Conference in Kathmandu, Nepal).
She was named one of the “100 Global Leaders of Tomorrow” by the World Economic Forum.
In her spare time, Loung makes origami earrings for her friends. “I have tiny hands and fingers, which allow me to fold little paper cranes and other creatures,” she says. “When my fingers get tired, I go out and ride my purple Huffy bike around the neighborhood. My bike has a very cool bell that looks like a huge eyeball. I like to ring my bell a lot.”
Lucky Child, her second book, was published in 2005 and is now available in trade paperback from Harper Perennial. She is working on a historical novel.
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About the book
Writing First They Killed My Father
The Voice
WHEN I DECIDED TO WRITE First They Killed My Father, I knew right away I would tell the story in a child’s voice and from a child’s point of view. In the twenty-six years since the Khmer Rouge’s defeat, I have grown older, learned other languages, traveled, and lived in different countries. When I dream about the war, however, it is as if time has never passed. Through the years I have lived many lives, and with each incarnation my war child is there beside me—giving me strength, urging me on, and inspiring me to live life to the fullest. But when I visit her in the Khmer Rouge’s Cambodia, none of my new adult incarnations can travel back with me. In First They Killed My Father I relived the Khmer Rouge’s Cambodia with a child’s love, hate, rage, and wounds.
By telling my story through a child’s eyes I had also hoped to dispel the myth that children suffer less than adults in their traumatic experiences. While growing up in Vermont I used to get so angry when I heard people say to my brother Meng, “Isn’t it lucky she was so young when she went through the war? Maybe she won’t remember at all. She’ll adapt faster