 In 1971 Tuttle attended the Clarion Writer's Workshop, running that year at Tulane University in New Orleans, after which she sold her first short story, "Stranger in the House", which appeared in 1972 in "Clarion II", an anthology edited by Robin Wilson.In 1974 Tuttle received a BA degree in English Literature and moved to Austin, Texas where she worked as a journalist for five years at the "Austin American-Statesman", a daily newspaper.In 1973 Tuttle and several other science fiction writers, including Howard Waldrop, Steven Utley and Bruce Sterling, founded the Turkey City Writer's Workshop in Austin, Texas, and in 1974 she was joint winner of the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer with Spider Robinson.