She stepped on the literary stage in 1993 with her biography of Anna Rūmane Ķeniņa, a writer and one of the first to introduce feminism ideology in Latvia, followed by two short story collections. Ikstena’s novel Dzīves svinēšana (Celebration of Life) published in In 1998 qualified her as a Latvian best seller with subsequent translation into several languages. Since then the author has written a book almost every year – either short stories, fairy tales, novels or biographical work. Alongside her own creative work, she has organised the publication of collected works of her literary mentor and teacher Dzintars Sodums, an accomplished American Latvian poet, writer and translator. Ikstena brought Sodums from the United States to his homeland Latvia, took him into her home when his health was failing and together with her family selflessly took care of him until his death.
The Latvian Literature Centre, the International Writers and Translators House in Ventspils and the annual festival ‘Prose Readings’ were created, thanks to Ikstena’s initiative. Since 2003, Nora Ikstena has been a member of the National Culture Council and for a period served as its Chair. She also is a scenario and concept author for films, music projects and large scale events, as well as travel columns in the largest daily newspaper Diena (Today). In sum, her activities make her one of the most noteworthy personalities in the cultural life of Latvia.
Ikstena’s most recent novel Mother’s Milk. The book, about a woman and her daughter’s existential life struggle transcending the dramatic time period from 1969 to 1989, was translated into English (Soviet Milk) and many other European languages. Ikstena is the recipient of numeros National Literature Prizes, also of the prestigious Baltic Assembly Award, as well as the Three Star Order of Latvia.
Soviet Milk was long listed for Republic of Counsciouness Prize and short listed for EBRD Literary Prize in London. She has several other publications to her credit including, fiction, short fiction, historical fiction, essays, biographies and translations.