A killing fields survivor, Loung Ung is a Cambodian-American human rights activist and the national spokesperson for the Campaign for a Landmine-Free World.

She is the author of two extraordinary memoirs. First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers (2000) details her survival and escape from one of the bloodiest episodes of the 20th century when some two million Cambodians died at the hands of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. She lost half of her family.

Just ten years old in 1980, she and an older brother escaped by boat to Thailand where they lived in a refugee camp until relocation to the United States.

Her memoir was praised by such notables as Sr. Helen Prejean, Queen Noor, and Senator Patrick Leahy. The late Dith Pran, whose life was portrayed in the book and film The Killing Fields, called First They Killed My Father “an eloquent and powerful narrative of a young witness.”

Her second book, Lucky Child: A Daughter of Cambodia Reunites with the Sister She Left Behind (2005), recounts life in America and her adjustment to a new culture. While battling the horrific memories of her childhood and her mixed emotions over being the daughter who was able to get away, she was determined to reunite with her sister, Chou. She did so 15 years after leaving Cambodia.

Loung Ung’s books have been translated into ten languages and published around the world. She has been featured in the New York Times, the Washington Post, USA Today, and the Boston Globe, as well as on “The Diane Rehm Show,” “Talk of the Nation,” “Weekend Edition,” “Fresh Air,” “Nightline,” and “The Today Show.”

Loung Ung is an internationally renowned speaker and currently resides in Shaker Heights.

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