Aug 12 2008
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“ When I was writing Unpolished Gem I wasn’t writing a story that would sell. I wrote a story—instead of about success, it was a story about small and rather large failures in life. My mother doesn’t end up learning English. My grandmother ends up dying, you know. My father ends up coming out of the killing fields. I have a nervous breakdown at school. And these stories are also pivotal to the migrant experience. They’re the ones that accentuate the smaller joys. If you’ve come from the killing fields to a new country, hot water is fascinating, elevators are fascinating. Pet food…!
— Melbourne writer Alice Pung, speaking to Punchup Press on 11 August. The full article is in the works. Growing Up Asian in Australia, a new anthology of personal accounts, essays, short stories and poetry edited by Alice, is available from Black Inc.
