while living in the bay area, she wrote for several major art publications, including "artweek" (as contributing editor), "cinematograph" (as editor), and "art news" (as correspondent). by this point she had been writing art criticism and exhibition catalogs for most of a decade and had already served as the video and performance editor for the "new art examiner" journal from 1977 to 1979. tamblyn was a prolific critic, going on to write dozens of reviews and a number of essays for "afterimage", "high performance", and "leonardo" in addition to the above publications. her writing often addressed issues of gender exclusion in new media, censorship of artists, and declining arts funding. she was known for producing finished articles from a first draft, without the need for revisions, an ability she attributed to her lifelong habit of daily journal writing. twice, in 1987 and 1990, her writing was recognized by the john mccarron art writing award from artspace in san francisco.