From CLIVE SCOTT, Professor Emeritus of European Literature, School of Literature and Creative Writing, University of East Anglia
I write to register my deepest dismay at the withdrawal of Arts Council Funding from Arc Publications. The reasons for my dismay are threefold:
1. Some small-scale operations, which are relatively cheap to run, enjoy a wonderfully disproportionate effectiveness because of the huge gap they fill, because of the streamlinednesss of their procedures and because of the high quality of their projects and products. Arc Publications is one such operation.
2. After the alarming decline in the teaching and support of foreign languages across the educational establishment, a corner has recently been turned: the government is doing all it can to foster the re-growth and pursuit of languages. The British Academy Policy Centre has recently published a Position Statement entitled 'Language Matters More and More', whose aim is to 'incentivise and increase language take-up at both school and university levels'. A significant part of Arc's output is the publication of translations of contemporary foreign poetry in bilingual editions. This is a vital element in the re-animation of interest in, and engagement with, languages other than our own, through routes more public and encounters more deeply involving than other initiatives.
3. As is implied in the previous points, Arc Publications maintain the highest standards of scholarly presentation, while making their poets maximally accessible, through appropriate critical apparatus and elegant design. I have first-hand knowledge of working with them, and can only express an enormous admiration for their care for quality, and for what they achieve in extending our view of the contemporary international poetic scene.
For these reasons, I would urge the Arts Council to re-consider its decision to deny funding to the distinguished and distinctive entreprise that Arc Publications is. The gritty tenacity of its directors deserves every support.