From THOMAS MOHLMANN, Dutch Foundation for Literature; Editor at Poetry International Web and Lyrikline.org
Just recently, the shocking news of Arc Publications losing its Arts Council Funding from 2012 reached Amsterdam.
Given the quality and diversity of the poets Arc publishes, and of the translators and editors it employs, I find this news genuinely astounding. As a poet and as an editor, I’ve been inspired by many of the gems of books Arc manages to produce, and as the poetry specialist of the Dutch Foundation for Literature, I’ve enjoyed the privilege of witnessing Arc’s good taste and strong commitment, while working on a few beautiful books of Dutch poets.
I certainly hope –as a professional- to be enabled to work with Arc again in the future, and –as a reader- that Arc will be enabled to keep on amazing me with their daring choices and helping me discover the riches of poetry from all over the globe.
Arc is one of those brave and invaluable publishing houses without which the connection between different cultures, literatures and poetical identities would be a great deal harder to establish and maintain.
I’m writing to you with sincere hope that the Arts Council will reconsider its decision. Arc’s publishing activities are of incredible value for international poets – either from the Netherlands or from elsewhere - hoping to find readers in the UK, for readers in the Anglophone world with an appetite for good poetry from all over the world, and in general for the landscape of poetry in the UK, and far beyond.