SOURCE: "'Don't I Know You?': An Interview with Gina Berriault," in The Literary Review, Vol. 37, Summer, 1994, pp. 714-23.

[In the following interview, Berriault discusses her writing and motivation.]

Gina Berriault has been writing stories, novels, and screenplays for more than three decades. Best known and most honored as a short story writer, she has published two volumes of stories, The Mistress and Other Stories (1965) and The Infinite Passion of Expectations: Twenty-Five Stories (1982). Called "exquisitely crafted," and "without exception, nearly flawless," her stories are remarkable for their subtle craft and the variety of characters, settings, and subject.

Her first novel, The Descent (1960), is about a Midwestern college professor appointed the first Secretary for Humanity, a Cabinet position designed to help prevent nuclear war. A plea for disarmament, The Descent depicts politicians militarizing the economy, harassing dissidents and promoting theories of winnable nuclear wars. Conference of Victims (1962), her second...