I write on behalf of the executive committee of English PEN. We believe that, as one of Great Britain's major, well-financed publishing houses enjoying charitable status, the OUP's abandonment of its contemporary poetry list shows a lack of concern for national literature.
In the current light of reduced Arts Council funding and publishers increasingly focused on commercial lists, surely Wordsworth and his fellow dead poets, published by OUP, would be prepared to subsidise their contemporary counterparts?
Rachel Billington, President, English Centre of International PEN.