After producing a number of relatively conventional socialist realist works, she gained a greater degree of notability and success in 1968 with the novel Hochzeit in Konstantinopel (Wedding in Constantinople).

This work, a blend of realism and fantasy exploring feminist themes, was a fresh development in East German literature.

While her work as a whole is generally argued to be predominantly concerned with gender, Morgner also touches upon other issues in East German society.

Whilst winning notable awards in East Germany, she was nevertheless subject to surveillance herself, and her works to heavy editing and often rejection.

A 'novel in thirteen books and seven intermezzos', it may be considered an epistolary novel as it includes (other than straight narrative) love poetry, morse code, exchanges of correspondence and transcripts.