From CHARLES BOYLE, Publisher
I wish to register my deep anger and sadness regarding the recent in cuts in funding to a number of important literary organisations in England. I write as a publisher.
The work of the Poetry Book Society and the Poetry Trust in enabling the poetry books I publish to gain readers has been of irreplaceable value. I refer you in particular to two first poetry collections published by CB editions: through the PBS seasonal recommendations and bulletins, and through the Poetry Trust’s Aldeburgh Poetry Prize, invitations to read at their festival and podcasts, knowledge of these books has been spread to readers who would otherwise have remained ignorant, and the poets have been able to develop their writing as their talent deserves. No other organisation in the UK is equipped to perform this function in the same way. Without the PBS and the PT, the job of spreading the word about new poetry will be even further monopolised by the marketing departments of the major commercial publishers. Cuts to these organisations are cuts to all publishers of poetry, and to readers of poetry too, but proportionately will be felt hardest by the smaller presses.
Arc Publications is dedicated to the kind of international, inclusive outlook that over the past few years commercial publishers have shied away from – which is to say that it is now more than ever that they need practical and financial support, not just the lip-service that public bodies generally pay to the values Arc embodies. Enitharmon Press publishes books that are essential to the country’s culture.
Both have worked for decades, with minimal financial resources, to develop a readership for challenging but necessary writers. Cutting their funding now not only endangers their future but is an insult to their past dedication and what they have achieved.
That these and other publishers have received cuts, while public money continues to be spent on such schemes as the Faber mentoring of new poets, is madness. The effect is to professionalise writers while reducing, and in some cases eliminating altogether, the ability of publishers to disseminate their work in a professional manner. For over at least a decade, publishing in the UK in general has been taking fewer risks, offering fewer opportunities to new or neglected talent; for ACE to abet this process rather than challenge it is a betrayal of its purpose.