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.

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.”

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...