There she taught English, performed vocals for the band IRO[3] and co-edited the magazine AYA.
[4] In her late teens, Gordon took a classes at San Francisco State University, working with Kathleen Fraser, Stephen Rodefer, and Barrett Watten.
Fraser's curriculum included talks with visiting writers and through these Gordon was exposed to Carla Harryman, Steve Benson, Anne Rice, Lyn Hejinian.
[2] She received an MA in Literature at UC Berkeley, completing her thesis on poet Bernadette Mayer in 1986.
[5] In 2000, Gordon, along with Gary Sullivan, Mitch Highfill, Drew Gardner and K Silem Mohammad began the practice that resulted in the creation of the Flarf movement, submitting intentionally atrocious poems to the website Poetry.com, which had scammed Sullivan's father, to see if the vanity press would draw the line at publishing their compositions.