Pal Vannarirak

Pal Vannarirak (born 23 November 1954) is a Cambodian novelist, poet and TV presenter. She worked as a censor where she stole back her own books which had been confiscated. She has written over 40 books and she won the Southeast Asian Writers Award in 2006.

Life Vannarirak was born near the town of Kampong Chhnang in Kampong Chhnang Province in Cambodia.

Her family was affected by the Khmer Rouge and they were moved out into the country. During the Khmer Rouge, the movement unleashed a self-genocide that resulted in many deaths and particularly of the country's intelligentsia. It has been estimated that there were 38,000 intellectuals but by the end of the Khmer Rouge's ruke there were only 300 and the number of people who could not read or write was 6 out of ebery ten people.

On 7 January 1979 Vietnam claimed victory bringing the Khmer Rouge period to an end. However Vietnam was in charge and Vannarirak was recruited by the occupying forces as a censor. She values this job as knowing the kind of writing that was not allowed allowed her to secretly create that kind of writing. Her husband objected to her illicit activity but she ignored his objections. On occasion she saw that her own books had been confiscated by the censors. She was able to take them home and sell them for a second time.

In 1995 her novel Unforgettable won a Preah Sihanouk Reach Award. She has written more than 40 books and dozens of short stories but she remembers crying when she found out that her husband had burned some of her original stories.