Putsata Reang

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Putsata Reang (born ca. 1974) is a Cambodian-American journalist and author.

Contents

Early life

Reang was born in Cambodia and raised in Corvallis, Oregon. [1] [2] [3] In 1975, when she was a baby, her family left war-torn Cambodia and escaped to a naval base in the Philippines. [1] [4]

Career

Reang's writing has appeared in appeared in the New York Times , Politico , [5] the Guardian , and elsewhere.

Reang has won fellowships from the Alicia Patterson Foundation [6] [3] and Jack Straw Cultural Center. [6]

Reang's memoir Ma and Me, about her family's escape to the United States and her difficult relationship with her mother, came out in 2022. [7] It won the 2023 Pacific Northwest Book Award, [8] and was also a finalist for the 2023 Lesbian Memoir/Biography Lambda Literary Award. [8]

Reang teaches memoir writing at the University of Washington School of Professional & Continuing Education. [2]

Personal life

Reang is married to a woman. [9] [10] As she wrote in a 2016 "Modern Love" column for the New York Times, "I’m gay, or a version of it. I came out to my mother in my 20s as gay because there is no word in our Khmer language for bisexual." [11]

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References

  1. 1 2 "Putsata Reang | Authors". Macmillan. Retrieved 2023-05-11.
  2. 1 2 "Journalist Putsata Reang shares an immigrant daughter's story in 'Ma and Me'". www.wbur.org. 17 May 2022. Retrieved 2023-05-11.
  3. 1 2 ""In memoir writing, vulnerability is the highest rigor": An Interview with Putsata Reang". blog.pshares.org. 17 May 2022. Retrieved 2023-05-12.
  4. "Putsata Reang finds home with and away from her mom in memoir 'Ma and Me'". The Seattle Times. 2022-05-30. Retrieved 2023-05-11.
  5. Reang, Putsata. "Opinion | My Family Fled Cambodia as the Americans Evacuated. Here's What I Hope for Afghan Refugees". POLITICO. Retrieved 2023-05-12.
  6. 1 2 "Ten Questions for Putsata Reang". Poets & Writers. 2022-05-17. Retrieved 2023-05-12.
  7. himani (2022-08-18). "Putsata Reang's New Memoir Reckons With Lost Family History". Autostraddle. Retrieved 2023-05-12.
  8. 1 2 "Ma and Me". Macmillan. Retrieved 2023-05-11.
  9. "Ma and Me: A Memoir | Washington Independent Review of Books". www.washingtonindependentreviewofbooks.com. Retrieved 2023-05-11.
  10. "Talk to the Practitioner: Putsata Reang". The Writer. Retrieved 2023-05-11.
  11. Reang, Putsata (2016-07-15). "At Sea, and Seeking a Safe Harbor". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2023-05-12.