I read a lot when I was in school in the United States, and even though writing in English is very difficult for me, I wrote in journals.

I think there are things I can't write in English that I wish I could write in Khmer.

I think that there are certain feelings and things you can convey in a simple form that people can see and understand.

I tried to write poems in rhyme. I tried writing songs. Sometimes I jotted down a thought. I would keep a log of spontaneous thoughts.

Some people have witnessed the killing of their husbands, or they survived other horrific things. My sister is a widow but her husband was killed after the Khmer Rouge. There are different periods in which violence has occurred, and differences in how these women became widowed and how they survived afterwards.

I think that through the narratives of other people you get closer to your own.

I write and I write and a lot of times I go back to the American lens, though sometimes it's a struggle to come from that perspective.