Sarah Maguire, "a vital presence in British poetry as a poet and translator," died November 2, the Guardian reported. She was 60. In 2004, Maguire founded the Poetry Translation Centre at London University, which aims to introduce new audiences to leading poets from around the world. "Establishing the PTC took tenacity, vision and great generosity of time," the Guardian noted."
Her three collections of poetry, Spilt Milk (1991), The Invisible Mender (1997) and The Pomegranates of Kandahar (2007), "laid out new poetic ground in their concerns with nature, growth and the body," the Guardian wrote. She also edited an anthology of horticultural poems, Flora Poetica (2003).
In 1996, Maguire was the first writer to be sent by the British Council to Palestine. She began translating contemporary Arabic poetry by writers like Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish, the Sudanese poet Al-Saddiq Al-Raddi and the Afghan poet Naderi Partaw, among others. Her work was translated into Arabic and Malayalam.