From MICHAEL HULSE, Associate Professor Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies, University of Warwick; editor, The Warwick Review
I have learned with deep concern and grave misgivings of the Arts Council's decision not to fund Arc Publications from 2012.
While the current financial constraints and the need to assure funding for the Olympics are of course familiar, it seems to me to be seriously short-sighted to impose cuts in places where relatively small amounts of money mean the difference between the continuation of vital cultural resources or their termination.
The north of England has been fortunate in recent decades to have a flourishing ABC of independent, non-London-based poetry publishing houses -- Arc, Bloodaxe, Carcanet. Like its two fellows, Arc has been conspicuous for its commitment to poetry of high quality from this country and from around the English-speaking world, and also to poetry in translation. Its series are substantial and serious, and individual writers regularly win awards and accolades. Arc depends for its survival on the dedication, vision and hard work of a small number of individuals,and has been rewarded for its achievements with critical praise, public recognition, and loyalty from readers and writers. The organic place this publishing house now occupies in the poetry fabric of this country is significant, and to destroy it (which would be all too easy) would be to visit wanton ruin on the fruits of long labour.
It used to be axiomatic that the greatest of the arts in this country is literature, and the greatest of its literary arts is poetry. The heritage of poetry is all too easily taken for granted, however, and the ability of the art to flourish despite adverse conditions and hostile decisions is easily overestimated. A decision not to continue funding to Arc Publications would tear a great hole in the poetry tapestry of the nation, and senselessly unravel work that took so very much care, craft and patient attention. I strongly urge the Arts Council to re-consider this damaging decision.