From 1994 until 2005, she served as the Chairperson of the Department of English at Columbia College Chicago, where she has taught for over 20 years.
Garnett Kilberg Cohen's awards include the Lawrence Foundation Prize from Michigan Quarterly Review, the Crazyhorse Fiction Prize, and four awards from the Illinois Council of the Arts. Her first story collection, Lost Women, Banished Souls, was published by University of Missouri Press. Her writing has appeared in many publications, including American Fiction, Ontario Review, The Antioch Review, The Literary Review, and Other Voices.
University of Missouri Press,. .
Thirteen stories, several of which are on relations between women from different social classes. In Guests, a couple go on TV to reveal their sexual problems, while Fabric is on a woman's struggle to hold onto a husband.