As one of several University of Iowa home page features, 'Meet the IWP' provides a very brief introduction to the writers from around the globe who will be in residence this fall through the International Writing Program (IWP). In this edition, the UI interviews Alice Pung.

"Lawyer Alice Pung, whose work as a fiction writer, playwright, and nonfiction writer is bringing her to the 2009 International Writing Program, was born in Melbourne, Australia, to Cambodian parents. She has published the memoir Unpolished Gem (2006) and she edited the anthology Growing Up Asian in Australia (2008). Unpolished Gem won the Australian Book Industry Association award for Newcomer of the Year, was selected for the Books Alive Great Reads Guide, and was short-listed for numerous other awards.

A Syndey Herald review of Unpolished Gem explains, 'Alice Pung, known to her Chinese-Cambodian family as Agheare, is a child of refugees who, having grown up in Australia, can offer a rare bicultural vantage point on Australian multiculturalism.'" Read more...