For most of her life Warner has worked as a journalist; her articles have been published in
The New Zealand Herald,
The Listener and other publications. In 1998 she had a short story, "If You Step On A Crack", published in the collection
Penguin 25 New Fiction edited by Graham Beattie and
Stephanie Johnson. She won the
Landfall Essay Competition in 2008. Her debut novel
The Sound of Breaking Glass was published in 2018 by
Mākaro Press. The novel is about the experiences of the child of a Holocaust survivor. She had completed the novel, begun years earlier, as part of her Masters of Creative Writing at
Auckland University of Technology. It was awarded the Hubert Church Best First Book Award for Fiction at the 2019
Ockham New Zealand Book Awards, with the judges describing it as a "surreal, satirical and deeply moving story of multi-generational trauma". Warner was unable to accept the award in person at the ceremony in May 2019 as she was recovering from a
brain aneurysm. The award was accepted on her behalf by her partner and children. By August of that year she was largely recovered and was able to attend the
Going West writers' festival.
Catherine Robertson, reviewing the book for
The New Zealand Listener, described it as "an ambitious novel in both content and style", but concluded "it's well worth the extra effort because Warner manages to bring her many plot threads together in an ending that's both moving and satisfying". In 2018 Warner had a poetry
chapbook of six poems,
Mitochondrial Eve, published by Compound Press.
Paula Green positively reviewed the chapbook, saying "this hallucinogenic, rollercoaster, gut punch of book runs through me like fire". Warner is also a musician and has performed with
swamp blues band Bernie Griffen and The Thin Men. == References ==