The Latest Breaking News from Alice Pung

My parents’ Betta electrical store, Springvale: the shop was our life, and it was enough

They were survivors of the killing fields and Mao’s China – and their shop was not just their existence, it was their second chance at redemption, writes author Alice Pung

The Guardian - AU · Mar 7

Friday essay: ‘the magnitude of their love was extraordinary’ – how an elderly couple showed Alice Pung the power of a good story

Every year on our birthdays, Uncle Martin and Auntie Stella would drive to our concrete house behind the carpet factory and gift me and my brother a book. They brought me Haffertee Hamster and Haffertee’s First Easter. They brought Alex Betsy Glowworm Shines Her Light and Friska, My Friend. There…

The Conversation · Jun 26, 2025

‘Live in the light, but carry the dark’: John Marsden’s books are his legacy – but so is his empathy

Celebrated author and educator John Marsden, best known for his dystopian young adult Tomorrow series, has died aged 74.

The Conversation · Dec 19, 2024

Stella prize 2023 shortlist: small publishers dominate Australian literary award

No major publishers represented among final six books in contention for $60,000 prize for female authors

The Guardian - AU · Mar 29, 2023

I believed readers only wanted trauma stories from writers of colour. Then I became an author

For so long, it seemed that readers were only interested in the experiences of people like me if we were traumatised, not triumphant – and I internalised this as an indisputable fact

The Guardian - AU · Mar 18, 2023

‘I broke out in a cold sweat’: could you stomach seeing your memories of bullying play out on TV?

Bad Behaviour author Rebecca Starford and the team behind a dramatisation of her memoir reflect on how they recreated her frightening account of her elite boarding school

The Guardian - AU · Feb 14, 2023

Witty and relevant, a stage adaptation of Alice Pung's Laurinda is filled with intelligence and humour

Review: Laurinda, directed by Petra Kalive.

The Conversation · Aug 16, 2022

Laurinda review – a disappointingly uneven adaptation of a beloved book

Based on Alice Pung’s novel about an Asian student in an elite Australian school in the 1990s, this timely production feels scattershot and unconvincing

The Guardian - AU · Aug 14, 2022

Morning mail: interest rate rise looms, space debris hits farm, Beyoncé cuts offensive lyric

Tuesday: Economists are predicting the Reserve Bank will raise interest rates from 1.35% to 1.85%. Plus: Beyoncé called out over ableist term

The Guardian - AU · Aug 1, 2022

Laurinda takes the stage: ‘Private school culture needs to change – the insularity, the entitlement’

Author Alice Pung and the two minds behind a new adaptation reflect on the beloved story of a girl navigating high school – Mean Girls meets Fight Club, with an Asian-Australian twist

The Guardian - AU · Aug 1, 2022