From DR. ZOE SKOULDING, Editor, Poetry Wales
As a writer, editor and translator, I am appalled to learn of the plan to cut Arc's funding and I wish to add my full support to any initiative to reverse that decision. This proposed cut is a terrible mistake.
Arc do not publish my work but they have radically shaped my world as a reader. In a culture where translated poetry is seriously under-represented, Arc have made an enormous impact in making connections with major poets and poetries in other languages. There is simply no-else doing this work on the same scale and to the same standard. The respect and connections they have built up both within Britain and internationally are immensely valuable; if these are lost, it will be very difficult for anyone else to build them to the same level.
As editor of Poetry Wales, a magazine that focuses on English-language poetry within the bilingual context of Wales, I know that a poetic culture unable to engage with other languages is one that will be slowly stifled. In order to flourish, poetry needs a rich field of connections across languages, and it is to this that Arc has contributed most valuably.
Other European countries have a far higher level of international engagement in poetry than Britain does; it will be very sad indeed if we lose the little we have. I am astonished at the lack of vision that lies behind this cut and believe that it must be reconsidered.