Nora Ikstena is a leading Latvian prose writer and essayist. In her writing, she reflects on life and death, love and faith, history and everyday in unique ways. Ikstena’s most recent novel Soviet Milk (Mātes piens, 2015) was translated into English in 2018. Set in the 1970s and 1980s, the novel engages with the history of Soviet occupation in Latvia through the perspectives of a child and her mother. The novel looks at history and memory through reproduction, gender, depression and happiness. In this symposium, Nora Ikstena will reflect on how the living history is depicted and reframed in Latvian contemporary literature, primarily in the new series, titled “We. Latvia, the 20th century” that consists of 13 novels.

Ikstena’s talk will be followed by responses from Dr Violeta Kelertas and Dr Liina-Ly Roos on Lithuanian and Estonian literature and culture.