 Garson was awarded an Obie for "The Dinosaur Door" and a Special Commission from the New York State Council on the Arts, for the Creation of Plays for Younger audiences.She has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, a Louis M. Rabinowitz Foundation Grant, the New York Public Library Books to Remember award and Library Journal's Best Business Books of 1989 award, and a MacArthur Foundation Grant for reading and writing.In the 1992 U.S. Presidential election, Garson was the running mate for J. Quinn Brisben on the Socialist Party USA ticket, replacing Bill Edwards, who died during the race.