Nora Ikstena

Nora Ikstena (née Rubene; 15 October 1969 – 4 January 2026) was a Latvian writer and cultural manager.

She was born in Riga and studied philology and English language and literature at the University of Latvia. After a subsequent period of residence in New York City for further studies, she returned home and worked to establish the Latvian Literature Centre.

Her debut novel Celebration of Life appeared in 1998, and she has written more than twenty books since, several novels, short story collections, biographies and essays. Her recent novel Soviet Milk [lv] (Latvian: Mātes piens, 2015) was translated into English and published in 2018 by Peirene Press in London. The launch took place on March 7 in the English-language bookstore Robert's Books in Riga. She also represented Latvia at the London Book Fair in 2018 as a featured author and was officially invited to be a participant of the Library of Congress National Book Festival of Washington D.C. in 2016. The book Soviet Milk has been licensed for 15 foreign languages, among them translations in Italian and German.

In 2008, Ikstena was honoured with the Order of the Three Stars (officer) of the Republic of Latvia.

In 2018, she was honoured with another national Excellence in Culture Award for being the internationally best-known Latvian writer of the 21st century.