[2][3] Her first collection of poetry, Dressing for the Cannibals, was launched in August 2009 as part of the 150th anniversary celebrations for Christchurch City Library.
[4][5] Her work has been published in Best New Zealand Poems[6][7] as well as on online poetry blogs[8][9] and in journals including Turbine, Snorkel, JAAM, Trout, takahē, Sweet Mammalian and Cincinnati Review (US).
[16][17] Frankie McMillan was awarded the Creative New Zealand Todd New Writers' Bursary in 2005.
[23] She received the University of Auckland residency at the Michael King Writers Centre in 2017,[24] and the NZSA Peter & Dianne Beatson Fellowship in 2019.
[25][26] My Mother and the Hungarians and other small fictions (Canterbury University Press, 2016) was longlisted for the 2017 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards.