Calligraphy Lesson: The Collected Stories

Copyright

2919 Commerce St. #159, Dallas, Texas 75226

deepvellum.org • @deepvellum

Copyright © 2015 by Mikhail Shishkin

Published by arrangement with the author and the BGS Agency.

English translation copyrights:

“Calligraphy Lesson” © 2007 by Marian Schwartz

“The Half-Belt Overcoat” © 2012 by Leo Shtutin

“Of Saucepans and Star-Showers” © 2013 by Leo Shtutin

“Nabokov’s Inkblot” © 2014 by Mariya Bashkatova

“In a Boat Scratched on a Wall,” “The Blind Musician,” and “Language Saved” © 2015 by Marian Schwartz

“The Bell Tower of San Marco” © 2015 by Sylvia Maizell

Some stories were published previously:

“The Half-Belt Overcoat” in Read Russia: An Anthology of New Voices (May 2012)

“Calligraphy Lesson” in Words Without Borders (July 2007)

“Nabokov’s Inkblot” in New England Review (Volume 34, Nos. 3–4, 2014)

“Of Saucepans and Star-Showers” in Spolia (March 2013)

“In a Boat Scratched on a Wall” originally appeared in slightly different form as “Mikhail Shishkin: A revolution for Russia’s words” in the Independent (March 22, 2013)

First edition, 2015. All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-941920-02-2 (ebook)

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CONTROL NUMBER: 2015935163

The publication of this book was made possible with the support of the Mikhail Prokhorov Foundation’s Transcript program to support the translation of Russian literature.

Cover design & typesetting by Anna Zylicz • annazylicz.com

Text set in Bembo, a typeface modeled on typefaces cut by Francesco Griffo for Aldo Manuzio’s printing of De Aetna in 1495 in Venice.

Deep Vellum titles are published under the fiscal sponsorship of The Writer’s Garret, a nationally recognized nonprofit literary arts organization.

Distributed by Consortium Book Sales & Distribution.