For our interview, Gish Jen suggests lunch at a neighborhood eatery not far from Harvard Square. On the phone, she gives me directions. It's not a far walk. Past the dry cleaner's, the Fishmonger, Formaggio Kitchen. I admit that I have never been to this last establishment. She laughs and raves, for one or two sentences, about its gourmet offerings. She sounds sincere and very, very congenial.

Gish Jen is the author of several short stories and two novels, and . "Birthmates," a story from 1995, was recently included in and will be one of eight featured in , a forthcoming collection of her short stories.

Jen grew up in Scarsdale, New York, and moved to Cambridge in the 1970s to attend Harvard University as an undergraduate. She was an English major who struggled with different career paths, dabbling at various points in pre-med and pre-law. She eventually returned to school at the University of Iowa to study writing. Today, at the age of forty-four, Jen lives in Cambridge with her husband David and their two children, Luke and Paloma.

Jen admits that her path to writing was very difficult and that she started relatively late in life. Some of the resistance stemmed from her parents, who might have preferred seeing their Harvard-educated daughter in a more stable career. As Jen explains it, their experiences in Shanghai and emigrating to the United States prejudiced them against insecurity in the lives of their children. Here they have this Harvard-educated daughter and she wants to be a writer

Jen laughs as she says this. But she resisted it herself and experimented with a number of professions. These included a turn as a contractor and a stint at Stanford Business School, where she met her husband. In the end Jen admits that she came to writing by default; she had tried everything else, and there was nothing left to do but write.

Jen's approach to her craft is serious and pragmatic. When I ask her what she likes best about writing, she hesitates and then smiles hugely. I like being done. In the end, everything comes to life. Grilled on the inspiration for her stories, she thinks again and tells me it is the act of writing-the movement of her fingers in part-that opens up her wellsprings of creativity. She does not wait for the moment of revelation to come before starting to write. After the baby was born, she explains, I simply didn't have time for writer's block. But there are other, less serious aspects to the job. She jokes that one of the chief advantages to writing is not having to wear pantyhose.

At lunch we are joined by Jen's baby, six-month old Paloma. This most recent encounter with pregnancy has left a deep impression, as has motherhood in general. It has also influenced her writing, sometimes in unusual ways. Most of the new stories in Who's Irish? were written during the second trimester of pregnancy, and Jen half-jokingly attributes this burst of creative energy to her abnormally high hormone levels. But it is in the work itself that the influence is most readily discerned. In stories like "Who's Irish?" and "House, House, Home," Jen dissects the relationships binding modern American families and describes the intense emotions surrounding pregnancy. For Jen, motherhood is something more profound and defining than ethnicity. "This was her Invasion of Normandy, after all," reflects the protagonist in "House, House, Home" as she gives birth to her son.

Jen's own son attends a local Cambridge school, and when I quiz her about her feelings regarding the Boston area, she has mostly positive things to say. When she and her husband moved out here fifteen years ago, they felt slightly chagrined at returning to the place they both had gone to school. But Jen admits that Cambridge is a great environment for writers, that there are literally "ideas everywhere." And she praises the local bookstores for their choice selections.

Finally, I ask her whether Cambridge ever figures into her writing, and the answer is not what I expect. Yes, she says after some reflection. Cambridge gives you hope that there's an audience for serious literature.

Gish Jen will be appearing in the Harvard Book Store author series at the Boston Public Library on June 22nd at 6pm

-Our interview was conducted and written by Jeni Chiu of the HBS staff.

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