From Professor TONY HOWARD, Department of English, Warwick University
The ending of Arts Council funding to Arc represents a devastating threat to the publication of foreign-language writing in this country.
Its prize-winning poetry list is our strongest link to many of the world's greatest writers, and its dazzling anthologies have introduced us to - have indeed encouraged - a generation of brilliant new voices across continents.
At such a violent and bewildering time, it is a dreadful mistake to cut ourselves off from the great global dialogues, from the eloquent testimony of inspired eye-witnesses, from the perceptions,reflections and insight of writers in Palestine, Algeria, Pakistan, India, Germany, Russia, Turkey, Japan....
When the waters are rising, we need Arc.
Under such intense financial pressure, it's inevitable that the Arts Council would make some misjudgements, but fortunately this one is easily corrected.