Zinaida Shakhovskaia  /  Correspondence 12

A faithful person has just brought me a novel by Shalamov "Bunkist," 17 1/2 pages. If you want to print it, not only because Shalamov is asking to join the Writer's Union, but also because it is too long for us.

You spoil me with splendid materials. Of course, your poems will appear in a good place in one of our next issues. As for the two poems by Brodskii, we didn’t find them in Grani, we checked, and I am going to print them as soon as possible, so that someone else doesn’t print them first...

If you send Shalamov's "Bunkist," I will be very grateful. I still have quite a few of his stories, but not "Bunkist," and I would gladly squeeze him (besides, he might not be a "concentration camp," which I would like so much [)]...

I have had a surge of urgent work and have had to delay “Dnevnik.” But for now, I am sending you two poems by I. Brodskii. Print them with the preamble I wrote, but without any mention of my name. But first, it might be better to check if these poems have appeared in Grani in the last two years...

I have read your explanation about Shalamov and answered you in the next “report.”