She began her writing career at the Village Voice, moving to The New Yorker in 1964, where she remains a staff writer.
Her books Allen Ginsberg in America (1969) and Honor to the Bride (1970), based on her travels in Morocco, were developed from long-form New Yorker articles.
Beginning in the 1970s, much of Kramer's reporting has been from various European locales, and since 1981 she has written a regular "Letter from Europe" for the New Yorker.
For the first paperback edition of The Last Cowboy, Kramer received a 1981 National Book Award for Nonfiction.
Kramer is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a founding director of the Committee to Protect Journalists.