Fennelly's first collection of poems, Open House, won multiple awards, including the Zoo Press Poetry Prize, the 2001 Kenyon Review Prize, the Great Lakes Colleges Association Award, and a Book Sense Top Ten Poetry Pick.

Fennelly is a contributor to The Oxford American, where her essays frequently feature the topics of Southern food, music, and books.

Her essays have appeared in Ploughshares, Poets & Writers, Ecotone, and The Virginia Quarterly Review.

The Society of American Travel Writers awarded her the Lowell Prize for her work in Southern Living.

Fennelly and her husband, Tom Franklin, co-authored a novel, The Tilted World, set during the 1927 flood of the Mississippi River.