Survivor – Putsata Reang
Apr 1st, 2020 by Jack Straw
Putsata Reang’s project for the 2019 Jack Straw Writers Program is a memoir that chronicles her life growing up in rural Oregon and her family’s journey escaping the war and genocide in Cambodia. In her conversation with curator Kathleen Flenniken, they discuss the difficulty of writing a memoir involving people who are living, displacement in its many forms, and Reang’s mother’s love of the television show Survivor. “Growing up, I didn’t really understand why, of all the TV shows, she loved this show so much. . . . I thought, you know, Mom’s, just, being crazy. Well, after I heard the story of how we escaped Cambodia and survived — Actually, I do think she can win.”
Putsata is a Cambodian-American memoirist and journalist. She has lived and worked globally in countries including Cambodia, Afghanistan, and Thailand, where she trained journalists in investigative reporting and advocated for freedom of expression. She is an alum of Hedgebrook and Mineral School residencies, and currently serves as an alum board member of the Mineral School Artist Residency. Her memoir, forthcoming from Farrar, Straus and Giroux in Spring 2020, explores themes of debt, duty, and the double displacement experienced by gay refugees.
SoundPages was produced by Jack Straw Cultural Center as part of the Jack Straw Writers Program. All of the writers heard in this series are published in the Jack Straw Writers Anthology, and featured online at www.jackstraw.org. Music by The Bird Tribe Orchestra, produced as part of the Jack Straw Artist Support Program.
