“Grace Paley,” in American Contradictions: Interviews with Nine American Writers, edited by Wolfgang Binder and Helmbrecht Breinig, Wesleyan University Press, 1995, pp. 77-100

In the following interview, Paley discusses her early life, formative influences, and the feminist and Jewish perspective in her fiction.

[SO:] You said somewhere that the three important things in your life are writing, politics, and your family. Let’s start with your family. Could you tell us about your parents?

[GP:] Well, my parents were Russian Jews. They were Socialists, and they were radical youngsters when they were kids. At one point or another my father has even written about some arrests, but the main one was when he was sent to, say, Arkhangelsk, and he and my mother were exiled. Then the czar had a son. When he had a son, he freed all prisoners who were less than twenty-one years old. My parents...