 Harris published her first short story, "The Runaway World," in the July 1926 issue of Weird Tales. In December of that year, she submitted a story for a contest being run by Amazing Stories editor Hugo Gernsback. Harris's story, "The Fate of the Poseidonia" ( a space opera about Martians who steal earth's water, placed third. Harris soon became one of Gernback's most popular writers.
