Beyond Trauma Narratives: Modern Khmer American Writing

Name: Beyond Trauma Narratives: Modern Khmer American Writing
Start: 2025-09-13T15:30:00-07:00
Location: 2025 E. 4th Street Long Beach, CA 90814

Schedule

Sat, 13 Sep, 2025 at 03:30 pm

UTC-07:00

Location

2025 E. 4th Street Long Beach, CA 90814 | Long Beach, CA

RUMDUOL 2025 LITERARY PROGRAM
Event Title: Beyond Trauma Narratives: Modern Khmer American Writing
Subtitle: Creating our own healing and storytelling
Date: September 13th, 2025
Time: 3:30pm-4:30pm
Location: Long Beach Art Theatre, 2025 E. 4th Street Long Beach, CA 90814
Event Description:
In this panel presentation and discussion, we will consider language as a portal to the past, present, and future. We address the question: How do we use writing to challenge and nurture the ongoing conversation about our history while also recognizing the evolution of Cambodian American identities?
Join us as we listen to the words of three amazing Khmer authors who have navigated their refugee journeys and transformed trauma into triumph through writing, and reflect on how you can enhance your personal journey by putting pen to paper.
As we commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Khmer Rouge mass killing and genocide, we will discuss language as a portal to the past, present, and future. How do we use writing to challenge and nurture the ongoing conversation about Cambodian American identity? What do we hope to read in the next 50 years?
Please join us for a Q&A and book signing after the panel.
FEATURED AUTHORS’ BIOS
Pichchenda Bao is a Cambodian American poet and writer, infant survivor of the Khmer Rouge regime, daughter of refugees and stay-at-home mother. Her most recent work has been published in The Offing, SWWIM, Cultural Daily, and elsewhere. She is co-editor of the poetry anthology, Braving the Body (Harbor Editions). She serves on the editorial board of Queensbound, an audio poetry project. She has received fellowships and awards from Aspen Words, Kundiman, Bethany Arts Community, and Queens Council on the Arts. She lives, writes and raises her three kids in New York City. More at www.pichchendabao.com
Samphors Chhun was born during the Killing Fields era in Cambodia and immigrated to the United States in 1982. Her family settled in San Diego, California, where she was raised. She earned a bachelor’s degree in Journalism from San Francisco State University and later obtained her Juris Doctor from the John F. Kennedy School of Law at Northcentral University.
Samphors currently serves as an attorney for the California Department of Insurance, where she reviews health insurance policies for legal compliance. Her debut novel, The Aloha Murder Mystery, began as a vacation souvenir but has since evolved into the Sam Chhun Murder Mystery Series.
Poet, writer, and storyteller Sanary Phen was born in a refugee camp in Thailand during the Khmer Rouge era in Cambodia. In 1981, she and her family emigrated to the United States and resettled in Lowell, which has been her home for over 40 years.
Sanary brings more than 20 years of experience in the social work and nonprofit sector, having served in both direct service and administrative roles at organizations including the Justice Resource Institute, AgeSpan, Girls Inc. of Greater Lowell, and most recently, the Coalition for a Better Acre.
She is also a freelance writer for the Lowell Sun and has been a dedicated volunteer with the Cambodian American Literary Arts Association since 2018. Sanary currently serves on the Executive Committee of the Nonprofit Alliance of Greater Lowell and Mosaic Lowell, an initiative advancing an arts economy plan for the City of Lowell through advocacy and resource development for local artists.
Passionate about the arts and deeply committed to community, Sanary takes pride in giving back to the city she calls home and to the people who have shaped her journey.
Dr. Christine Su is an educator, historian, writer, and community activist. The biracial daughter of a Khmer father and a Scottish mother, her research efforts focus on multiracial and transnational identity and Southeast Asian diasporic history and culture. She is the author of Voices of a New Generation: Cambodian Americans in the Creative Arts (2021), and Kroeung: Cambodian Cooking with Chef T (2022).
She is one of the authors of the Cambodian American Studies Model Curriculum (CASMC) project launched nationwide in 2025. The CASMC provides teachers with lesson plans, primary documents, and teaching strategies to integrate Cambodian culture history and curriculum into their classrooms.
Dr. Su is currently Visiting Faculty of Southeast Asian History and Asian American Studies at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell.