In 1953 her third collection, Il mare non bagna Napoli [it], won the coveted Viareggio Prize; thereafter, Ortese's stories, novels, and journalism received many of the most distinguished Italian literary awards, including the Strega and the Fiuggi.

L'iguana, Ortese’s best-known work in English translation, was published in 1987 as The Iguana by the American literary press McPherson & Company.

In 1937, Massimo Bontempelli, writer for Bompiani and Ortese's mentor, published another of her short stories, Angelici dolori.

The latter consisted of short stories and reportages which depicted the abject conditions of Naples following the war; it became highly acclaimed and was awarded the Viareggio Prize.

Then in 1975, after deep disappointment with the editorial failure of her most important novel, Il porto di Toledo, she left the capital to reach Rapallo.

In this period she wrote two of her most important novels, Il cardillo addolorato, which topped the Italian fiction list[4] and Alonso e i visionari.

She died of cancer, which she had kept hidden, on March 9, 1998, at the age of 83 in the Rapallo hospital,[7] only a few days after finishing the necessary editing for the re-release of Il porto di Toledo.

"[7] On March 14, Le Monde published an article about her life, writing: "When we were wondering just yesterday who were the 'greats' of Italian literature, one name inevitably came up: Ortese".

[9] Two volumes of her selected short stories, translated by Henry Martin and published under the collective title A Music Behind the Wall, appeared in 1994 and 1998 from McPherson & Company.