From ANDRAS GEREVICH, Hungarian poet, translator of poetry and literary organizer
I was very disappointed to hear that such an important publisher as Arc has lost its Arts Council funding. Travelling around the bookshops of Europe from Stockholm, through Paris and Berlin to Prague and Rome, I find the extent of literature published in translation amazing and truly enhancing for a united Europe and a globalized world. However, often when I visit bookshops in London I am more disappointed as the culture seems so closeted and self centred: the books sold are mostly by English language authors from Britain, Ireland, the US and Canada. Only the top stars of minor languages are translated into English, which in numbers is a very small propotion of what gets translated into German or French. Arc has been doing a lot of hard work to fill in this gap: the anthologies and books of poetry Arc has published in translation in these past years has made not only the British, but the European literary landscape much richer by connecting the literatures of several minority languages into the British and thus European mainstream of poetry. Arc should be able to continue with this important work as they are on a journey that has just begun!