She is best known for writing the novels Suspicious River, The Life Before Her Eyes and White Bird in a Blizzard, all of which have been adapted to film.

[4] Her novel The Life Before Her Eyes is the basis for the film of the same name, directed by Vadim Perelman and starring Uma Thurman and Evan Rachel Wood.

Her novel A moi pour toujours (Be Mine) was published by Christian Bourgois, and was a national best seller.

Her most recent book of poetry, Where Now - New and Selected Poems,[5] was published in 2017 by Copper Canyon Press.

In 2005 she was The Frost Place poet in residence and in 2009 she was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in Creative Arts - Poetry[9] She received the 2014 Grand prix des lectrices de Elle.