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 recent novel Soviet Milk (Latvian: Mātes piens, 2015) was translated into English and published in 2018 by Peirene Press in London.

The book Soviet Milk has been licensed for 15 foreign languages, among them translations in Italian and German.

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