Nadezhda Azhgikhina is a journalist, writer and executive secretary of the Moscow PEN Centre. She is a graduate of the faculty of journalism at Moscow State University and has a PhD in Russian literature. She has worked for the weekly Ogoniok, and the daily Nezavisimaya gazeta. She writes a personal column in the national weekly Delovoy Vtornik and teaches at Moscow State University in the faculty of journalism. She has been a secretary of the Russian Union of Journalists. She is a member of the Union of Russian Writers, Russian PEN, and of the Gender Council of International Federation of Journalists. She has written and edited numerous books on culture, journalism, human rights and gender equality.