From FERNANDO KOFMAN, poet (Buenos Aires)
The news I’ve just received from Arc Publications has shaken and disappointed me. To withdraw official funds' support to independent publishing companies, those who, like Arc Publications, privilege quality in literature, takes any country, in the medium term, to a cultural dead end.
This statement is founded on my experience of 42 years work as a book salesman in Argentina for many publishing companies. In 1983, with the return of democracy to Argentina, many small poetry publishers started to appear , as the one (Calle Abajo) that I started with some friends., poets as myself. We published poets from U.S.A., Italy and Great Britain, sometimes in bilingual editions. In that way, Argentina came out of an insularity that had been very pernicious for the country.
Nowadays, (since 1983 to these days), there are about 40 poetry publishing houses. But in the majority of them quality cannot be privileged, because, many times, the authors have to pay for their editions, (due to lack of official support,) and so the literary quality standards cannot be fully respected. I hope this bad example does not reach to the United Kingdom.