AUTHOR · ACTIVIST · SPEAKER · STORYTELLER
LoungUng
"I believe we all have the power to rewrite our lives."
Loung Ung is an author, peace activist, and co-screenwriter of First They Killed My Father, a film directed by Angelina Jolie and streaming on Netflix. Through storytelling, she crafts narratives of resilience and healing that move from the page to the screen.
A MESSAGE FROM LOUNG
Welcome.
I hope you leave here feeling inspired by life.
The beauty. The struggles. The resilience. The triumphs.
The connections. The miracles.
My wish is that this site inspires you to create change — in your life, our communities, our world.
If you are a curious reader:Thank you. Your willingness to sit with someone else's story is itself an act of empathy.
If you are a Change Maker:Thank you for your work to build a world that is safer and more beautiful for all of us. I hope my story, my books, and my words continues this worthy work.
If you are a survivor:I want you to know this. Your suffering is not the whole of who you are. It is one part of a life's experience.
The whole of who you are has not yet been written.
You have the power to write it.
What I believe….
"We are made from the strength of every ancestor who survived. And thrived.
~Loung Ung
Loung Ung was born in Phnom Penh, Cambodia — one of seven children of a high-ranking government official who loved his city, his family, and the open markets where fried crickets were better than candy. She was five years old when Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge army stormed into the city in April 1975 and changed everything.
Separated from her family to survive, trained as a child soldier, reunited with her siblings years later in a refugee camp — Loung eventually made her way to Vermont, and then in 1995, back to Cambodia.
She never stopped going back.
Over more than 50 trips to Cambodia, she has witnessed her country's transformation, celebrated its 2,000-year history, and carried its stories — its temples, its mythology, its people.
Loung began her activism in 1993 as a Community Educator at a domestic violence shelter in Maine. Since then, she has worked on campaigns addressing violence against women, the use of child soldiers, and landmine eradication worldwide. She has made over 40 trips back to Cambodia, dedicating herself to helping her homeland heal from the traumas of war.
Loung has testified at the United Nations, stood on stages at Stanford and Dartmouth, and spoken at the Women in the World Summit. She served as National Spokesperson for the Campaign for a Landmine-Free World, a program awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
She is the author of three memoirs: First They Killed My Father (HarperCollins, 2000), Lucky Child (2005), and Lulu in the Sky (2012). Her first book was adapted into a film co-written and directed by Angelina Jolie for Netflix (2017). A graphic novel adaptation is forthcoming from Astra Publishing.
CAMBODIA
50+ return trips since leaving as a refugee
SPEAKING
25 years · Stanford, Dartmouth, UN, Women in the World
BOOKS
Three memoirs · Translated into 15 languages
WHAT THE WORLD HAS SAID
"[Loung] tells her stories straightforwardly, vividly, and without any strenuous effort to explicate their importance, allowing the stories themselves to create their own impact."
— NEW YORK TIMES
"Ung's memoir should serve as a reminder that some history is best not left just to historians, but to those left standing when the terror ends."
— BOOKLIST, STARRED REVIEW
"Despite the tragedy all around her, this scrappy kid struggles for life and beats the odds. This spunky child warrior carried me with her in her courageous quest for life. Reading these pages has strengthened me in my own struggle."
— SISTER HELEN PREJEAN, DEAD MAN WALKING
"A riveting memoir — an important, moving work that those who have suffered cannot afford to forget, and those who have been spared cannot afford to ignore."
— SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
"Loung has written an eloquent and powerful narrative as a young witness to the Khmer Rouge atrocities. This is an important story that will have a dramatic impact on today's readers and inform generations to come."
— DITH PRAN, THE KILLING FIELDS
"In this gripping narrative, Loung Ung describes the courage that enabled her family to survive, and the determination that has made her an eloquent voice for peace and justice in Cambodia."
— U.S. SENATOR PATRICK LEAHY
