Gotlieb began publishing poetry in Canadian literary magazines, establishing her reputation as a serious poet before turning to speculative fiction.
Before becoming known primarily as a science fiction novelist, Phyllis Gotlieb built a significant reputation as a poet in Canadian literary circles during the late 1950s. Her poetry appeared in respected journals, and she was recognized for a distinctive voice that combined formal control with imaginative, often unsettling imagery.
This grounding in poetry proved influential in her later prose fiction, which was noted by critics for its lyrical density and linguistic inventiveness—qualities uncommon in genre science fiction of the period. Her poetic sensibility allowed her to bring literary legitimacy to a genre still viewed with suspicion by the Canadian literary establishment.
Gotlieb's dual identity as poet and novelist helped bridge the gap between so-called 'serious' Canadian literature and popular genre fiction, a bridge that few writers of her generation successfully constructed. Her early poetic work laid essential groundwork for her later acclaim as a novelist and short story writer, and it established the literary credibility that would later support her expansion into speculative fiction.