diff --git a/bigquery/storage/managedwriter/managed_stream.go b/bigquery/storage/managedwriter/managed_stream.go
index 2131d9337f1..b7682d58115 100644
--- a/bigquery/storage/managedwriter/managed_stream.go
+++ b/bigquery/storage/managedwriter/managed_stream.go
@@ -16,7 +16,6 @@ package managedwriter
 
 import (
 	"context"
-	"errors"
 	"fmt"
 	"io"
 	"sync"
@@ -316,9 +315,7 @@ func (ms *ManagedStream) lockingAppend(requestCtx context.Context, pw *pendingWr
 		err = (*arc).Send(pw.request)
 	}
 	if err != nil {
-		// Transient connection loss.  If we got io.EOF from a send, we want subsequent appends to
-		// reconnect the network connection for the stream.
-		if errors.Is(err, io.EOF) {
+		if shouldReconnect(err) {
 			ms.reconnect = true
 		}
 		return 0, err
diff --git a/bigquery/storage/managedwriter/retry.go b/bigquery/storage/managedwriter/retry.go
index e598a2d806b..7ace796c163 100644
--- a/bigquery/storage/managedwriter/retry.go
+++ b/bigquery/storage/managedwriter/retry.go
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@ package managedwriter
 import (
 	"context"
 	"errors"
+	"io"
 	"time"
 
 	"github.com/googleapis/gax-go/v2"
@@ -47,3 +48,19 @@ func (r *defaultRetryer) Retry(err error) (pause time.Duration, shouldRetry bool
 		return r.bo.Pause(), false
 	}
 }
+
+// shouldReconnect is akin to a retry predicate, in that it evaluates whether we should force
+// our bidi stream to close/reopen based on the responses error.  Errors here signal that no
+// further appends will succeed.
+func shouldReconnect(err error) bool {
+	var knownErrors = []error{
+		io.EOF,
+		status.Error(codes.Unavailable, "the connection is draining"), // errStreamDrain in gRPC transport
+	}
+	for _, ke := range knownErrors {
+		if errors.Is(err, ke) {
+			return true
+		}
+	}
+	return false
+}
diff --git a/bigquery/storage/managedwriter/retry_test.go b/bigquery/storage/managedwriter/retry_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..ca4272339c1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/bigquery/storage/managedwriter/retry_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,64 @@
+// Copyright 2022 Google LLC
+//
+// Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+// you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+// You may obtain a copy of the License at
+//
+//     https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+//
+// Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+// distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+// WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+// See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+// limitations under the License.
+
+package managedwriter
+
+import (
+	"fmt"
+	"io"
+	"testing"
+
+	"github.com/googleapis/gax-go/v2/apierror"
+	"google.golang.org/grpc/codes"
+	"google.golang.org/grpc/status"
+)
+
+func TestManagedStream_ShouldReconnect(t *testing.T) {
+
+	testCases := []struct {
+		err  error
+		want bool
+	}{
+		{
+			err:  fmt.Errorf("random error"),
+			want: false,
+		},
+		{
+			err:  io.EOF,
+			want: true,
+		},
+		{
+			err:  status.Error(codes.Unavailable, "nope"),
+			want: false,
+		},
+		{
+			err:  status.Error(codes.Unavailable, "the connection is draining"),
+			want: true,
+		},
+		{
+			err: func() error {
+				// wrap the underlying error in a gax apierror
+				ai, _ := apierror.FromError(status.Error(codes.Unavailable, "the connection is draining"))
+				return ai
+			}(),
+			want: true,
+		},
+	}
+
+	for _, tc := range testCases {
+		if got := shouldReconnect(tc.err); got != tc.want {
+			t.Errorf("got %t, want %t for error: %+v", got, tc.want, tc.err)
+		}
+	}
+}