From MICHELENE WANDOR, poet & playwright
I am shocked to hear that Arc Publications has lost its Arts Council Funding from 2012. I have known Arc Publications since the 1970s, when I was working as Poetry Editor at 'Time Out', and beginning to write poetry myself. During my eleven years at 'Time Out', I conscientiously reviewed all poetry publications, focussing especially on those from the so-called 'small presses'. This latter has always been a misnomer, since it is these intrepid, risk-taking and hard-working outfits which have kept the groundswell of British poetry alive. Major publishers can always subsidise their largely loss-making poetry lists from other trade best-sellers, but smaller-scale poetry publishers must always go it alone, supporting an art form which is constantly enriched with the work of new and important established poets. It is as one of these that I have worked with Arc during the past decade. They published both my recent poetry collections; one, rejected by other publishers, became a Poetry Society Book Recommendation. This shows that Arc has an essential eye for what might otherwise be overlooked or neglected. The Arts Council decision should be reconsidered and reversed.