Ethnic imbalance

Ten, a new anthology that reflects the multicultural makeup of contemporary British poets, counts for more than its outstanding verse, writes Lara Pawson in the Guardian:

One of the reasons Ten matters is because it redresses a gross imbalance, namely that under 1% of poetry books published in the UK are by black or Asian poets.

Pawson uses the response to Ten to call foul on a number of comments made in reference to the UK's diversity, including Cardinal Walter Kasper's remark that coming to England was like going to a "third-world country," and secretary of state for culture Jeremy Hunt's snide comment about the "box-ticking" anthology:

"The debate has got to move on from the kind of box-ticking targets approach that says that in return for your grant from the Arts Council, you will get so many people from particular ethnic or social backgrounds."

In short, Pawson wants readers to remember the primary purpose of publishing poets of diverse origins:

How exactly is the Arts Council to interpret this? Should it now be striving to fund projects that mimic the largely white, male, privately educated, Oxbridge cabinet of which Hunt is such a fortunate part? Seriously, though, the poets who comprise the Ten anthology are not colourful ticks in boxes, but talented poets in their own right.