Martha Walandouw Lohn

Martha Walandouw Lohn was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey to a naturalized American Polish Mama who escaped the Russian occupation of Poland in the 1920s and an undocumented Minahasan-Indonesian Papa who disembarked a Dutch military ship in New York and never reboarded—Lohn is not just an author; she’s a living testament to resilience and the human spirit.

As a survivor of World War II’s Japanese occupation of Indonesia, formerly known as the Dutch East Indies, and as a child who saw her father getting deported from the United States, Lohn’s experiences have become a wellspring of inspiration for her writing. Her evocative storytelling captures the nuances of history, weaving together the threads of personal experience with the grand tapestry of global events.

She is an avid gardener. Much like the strong ties she has cultivated with family, both by blood and by heart, anything she puts into the ground — even a twig — will grow and flower. She is a mother, a grandmother, and a great grandmother of multi-heritage descendants and a Tanta (Auntie) and great Tanta to many family members in the United States, the Netherlands, and Indonesia. She lives in the Pacific Northwest with her family, and has continued to find inspiration, healing and hope through gardening.