[1] As a student, Persen was involved in growing Sámi activism during the Alta conflict and participated in the 1979 hunger strike at the Storting [no] and was a voice of the ČSV political-artistic movement.

In 1993, her poetry collection Biekkakeahtes Bálggis (Windless Path) was nominated for the Nordic Council Literature Prize for the Sámi language area.

She earned a second nomination in 2008 for Meahci Šuvas Bohciidit Ságat (Tales Spring up from Nature's Rush), another collection of poems, which previously won the Saami Council Literature Prize in 2006.

In November 2020, her exposition "Bassibáikkit" (Sacred Sites) opened at the Sámi Center for Contemporary Art [no], running until February 2021.

[7] Persen also published in 2000 Muora ii galgga sojahit eambbo go gierdá (ISBN 9788276010466), a biography of Sámi artist Jon Ole Andersen, co-written with Bente Geving.