Following a concerted outcry by hundreds of authors, the government has dropped plans for a 10.6% reduction in support for literature in Wales
The Welsh books world has issued a “huge diolch” to the hundreds of authors, from Philip Pullman to Sarah Waters, whose support pressured the Welsh government into a dramatic change of heart over its plans to cut funding to the Welsh Books Council.
This week saw writers and publishers come together to protest the Welsh government’s proposed cut of 10.6% to the Welsh Books Council, which they said would have “a significant and deleterious impact” on literature from Wales. A letter to Welsh deputy culture minister Ken Skates calling for the plans to be halted was signed by names including the national poet of Wales Gillian Clarke and the TS Eliot prize-winning poet Philip Gross, while a petition garnered more than 2,000 signatures, including those of Pullman and Waters.
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