Alice Pung is a Melbourne writer and lawyer. She was born in Footscray, and grew up in Braybrook, attending local primary and secondary schools in the Western suburbs.

She has had stories and articles published in Good Weekend, Meanjin, The Monthly, The Age, The Best Australian Stories 2007 and Etchings.

Although Alice is currently practising as a solicitor, she has worked extensively with both primary and secondary school students - as an art instructor, independent school teacher, and student mentor.  Alice is currently a tutor and subject co-ordinator at Ormond College, the University of Melbourne.

Alice has a deep passion and empathy for youth issues, and believes in the power of good humour (and not-so-good puns) to help surmount adversity. Alice has also appeared on radio with Richard Stubbs, with John Safran and Father Bob Maguire on ‘Sunday Nights with Safran’, and on Ramona Koval’s ‘The Book Show’.

In 2008 Alice has compiled and edited Growing Up Asian in Australia. Here are well-known authors and exciting new voices, spanning several generations and drawn from all over Australia. In sharing their stories, they show us what it is really like to grow up Asian, and Australian. 

Alice has received enormous critical acclaim for her writing. Unpolished Gem won the 2007 Australian Newcomer of the Year award in the Australian Book Industry Awards and was shortlisted for several other awards including the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards, the New South Wales Premier’s Literary Awards and The Age Book of the Year 2007.