From DONALD ATKINSON, Winner of First Prizes in the 1988 Peterloo Poets and TLS Cheltenham Festival poetry competitions, and the Sheffield Thursday poetry competion of 1994
I'm writing to express my disappointment that ARC has had its Arts Council Funding cut. I believe this is a bad decision, chiefly because of ARC's pioneering work in the field of translation, which has brought into our slightly parochial English literary scene much important poetry by foreign writers. I think this work should continue to receive Arts Council funding. I am personally grateful to ARC for its publication of my own poetry over the last nineteen years, notably of four volumes, the most recent being 'In Waterlight' (2004) 'Poems New, Selected and Revised'. This collection, like the earlier ones, has been handsomely produced. Having benefitted myself from an Arts Council Bursary in 1997, I know how important support from this source is to all involved in the republic of letters, and particularly in its poetry.
I very strongly urge that ARC's funding be restored.