From ANDY CROFT, writer, poet & publisher
I am writing to express my disappointment and concern at the Arts Council’s decision to refuse the application for portfolio status by Arc Publications. This is an inexplicable and shocking decision, even among so many inexplicable and shocking funding decisions. It will certainly have serious consequences for the writing and reading of poetry in the UK – and beyond.
For over forty years Arc have helped to shape the landscape of contemporary poetry. Their poets are among the most distinguished, their translations are of the highest order, and their books have always been of the very highest quality. At a time when British poetry publishing is increasingly squeezed between Arts Council cuts, high-street monopolies, celebrity prizes, internet price-wars, library closures and book-signing festivals, Arc’s distinctive list has helped to protect poetry from the forces of show-business and big-business. What other publisher can claim a list that includes, on the one hand, Mayakovsky, Peret, Radnoti, Rosewicz, Herliany, Fisherova and Cassou, and on the other, Sebastian Barker, Philip Callow, Linda France and Julia Darling. I can certainly think of no-one else who would have published our translations of those Bulgarian poets featured in A Balkan Exchange (2007).
I understand that there is no system of appeal against the decision. But I hope that the Arts Council is left in no doubt that it will have a very serious and negative impact on British poetic culture.