Starting as a journalist, her first published work of fiction is thought to be "The Customs Lounge", a science fiction story published in the September 1963 issue of "If", under the byline "E.A. Proulx". Another contender, a year later, was a science fiction story called "All the Pretty Little Horses", which appeared in teen magazine "Seventeen" in June 1964. She subsequently published stories in "Esquire" magazine and "Gray's Sporting Journal" in the late 1970s, eventually publishing her first collection in 1988 and her first novel in 1992. Subsequently, she was awarded NEA (in 1992) and Guggenheim (in 1993) fellowships.