Chizhova, Elena: - Elena Chizhova was born in 1957 in Leningrad, the city which provides the setting for her award-winning The Time of Women, a novel about the secret culture of resistance and remembrance amongst women of Russia. Chizhova, a former economist, teacher and entrepreneur, turned to writing in 1996 after being rescued from a burning cruise ship. Her beautiful and sensitive prose has already been recognized in her homeland: she is the winner of the Northern Palm and the Literary Premier of 'Zvezda' journal in 2001, as well as of the Russian Booker Prize in 2009. Chizhova's prose shuns trickery in favour of emotional honesty in order to probe the weeping sores of Russian history that contemporary culture would sooner forget. Chizhova is the director of the local PEN centre in St. Petersburg.