[1] She wrote her thesis but was unable to write the state examinations on account of a debilitating illness that made her bedridden for five years and left her partially blind.

Though she had grown up in an ardent Communist family, she experienced a spiritual split between the historical optimism of Bolshevism and an understanding of life's essential tragedy.

Informed by her Jewishness, she combined the Christian view that the Jews were responsible for the death of Jesus, thus facing the consequences of that action.

[4] Her poetry expanded beyond Christian ethics to a universal sentiment of faith which people could absorb regardless of their religion.

[citation needed] The Norwegian Academy of Literature and Freedom of Expression awarded Mirkina and Pomerants the Bjørnson Prize in 2009.