From AMAIA GABANTXO, Basque-English translator of Six Basque Poets
I just wanted to offer my support for the work Arc Publications has been carrying out all these years. I think their contribution to poetry in translation in the UK is unmatched and essential. They are the first publishers to have brought forward a collection of Basque poetry in translation (directly from Basque into English, also one of the few publications in existence in that regard) in the UK and I don't imagine that there are many other publishers in the UK with the imagination to do something like that.
Poetry from other cultures brings into our lives representations of what is real that are very different from our limited knowledge and experience - also at a linguistic level. We need a publisher that will provide this in the UK, not just because it's important or enriching to listen to what other cultures have to say, poetically, but because the natural flux and evolution of any language (in this case, English) requires it to be fed a rich variety of otherness to keep growing and evolving. You don't want English to go the way of Latin, which it will do if it continues to believe too much in its own hegemony and neglect to realise the importance of literature in translation for its own survival.
Keeping ARC in the UK publishing landscape is an antidote against small mindedness, blinkeredness, navel gazing-edness. It is also very necessary, if you want to ensure that the next generation of English-language writers have rich pastures from which to graze.