From KRISTIINA EHIN, poet, and ILMAR LEHTPERE, translator
We are utterly apalled by the news that a highly esteemed publishing institution like Arc Publications has been refused Arts Council funding. Arc is one of the very few publishers not only in the UK, but in the rest of the English-speaking world as well, who regularly publish the best of foreign poetry in translation and also understand how to market it. The Scent of Your Shadow, our book published by Arc in 2010, has received three very prestigious poetry prizes. Books published by Arc are singled out for praise again and again.
In spite of what Napoleon and Disraeli said, Britain is not a nation of shopkeepers, much as certain people in positions of authority would like it to be. There is a palpable need for poetry and the arts in the UK. Refusal of Arts Council funding to a publisher like Arc is nothing short of censorship, as there is no one to fill the gap - as we have already said, very few publishers publish poetry in translation. As East Europeans we are particularly sensitive to such manifestations of censorship. Many poets of international reputation will remain strangers to the British reading public if this refusal is permitted to stand. People in other countries also depend on English translations published in the UK in order to have access to poetry written in languages they do not understand. Thus Arc represents the best of poetry publishing not only in the UK but abroad as well, even in countries where English is not the mother tongue. The sad consequences of Arc being refused Arts Council funding will be very far-reaching indeed and will send a regrettable signal beyond Britain's borders about the state and status of the arts in the UK today.