Sarah Maguire (26 March 1957 – 2 November 2017) was a British poet, translator and broadcaster.

Life

Born in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, Sarah Maguire left school early to train as a gardener with the

London Borough of Ealing The London Borough of Ealing () is a London borough in West London. It comprises seven major towns: Acton (W3), Ealing (W5, W13, NW10), Greenford (UB6), Hanwell (W7), Northolt (UB5), Perivale (UB6) and Southall (UB1, UB2). With a population ...

(1974–77). Her horticultural career had a significant impact on her poetry: her third collection of poems ''The Florist's at Midnight'' (Jonathan Cape, 2001) brought together all her poems about plants and gardens, and she edited the anthology ''Flora Poetica: the Chatto Book of Botanical Verse'' (2001). She was also Poet in Residence at

Chelsea Physic Garden The Chelsea Physic Garden was established as the Apothecaries' Garden in London, England, in 1673 by the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries to grow plants to be used as medicines. This four acre physic garden, the term here referring to the sc ...

, and edited ''A Green Thought in a Green Shade'', essays by poets who have worked in a garden environment, published at the conclusion of this residency. Maguire was the first writer to be sent to Palestine (1996) and

Yemen Yemen (; ar, ٱلْيَمَن, al-Yaman), officially the Republic of Yemen,, ) is a country in Western Asia. It is situated on the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, and borders Saudi Arabia to the Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, north and ...

(1998) by the

British Council The British Council is a British organisation specialising in international cultural and educational opportunities. It works in over 100 countries: promoting a wider knowledge of the United Kingdom and the English language (and the Welsh lan ...

. As a result of these visits she developed a strong interest in Arabic literature; she translated the Palestinian poets

Mahmoud Darwish Mahmoud Darwish ( ar, محمود درويش, Maḥmūd Darwīsh, 13 March 1941 – 9 August 2008) was a Palestinian poet and author who was regarded as the Palestinian national poet. He won numerous awards for his works. Darwish used Palestine ...

and Ghassan Zaqtan and the Sudanese poet, Al-Saddiq Al-Raddi (2008). With Yama Yari, Maguire co-translated the Afghan poet Partaw Naderi (2008); their translation of ''A Thousand Rooms of Dream and Fear'' by the leading Afghan novelist, Atiq Rahimi (Chatto & Windus, 2006) was longlisted for the

Independent Foreign Fiction Prize The ''Independent'' Foreign Fiction Prize (1990–2015) was a British literary award. It was inaugurated by British newspaper ''The Independent'' to honour contemporary fiction in translation in the United Kingdom. The award was first launched i ...

in 2007. She was the only living English-language poet with a book in print in

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

- her collection of selected poems, ''Haleeb Muraq'' (Dar-Al Mada, 2003), was translated by the leading Iraqi poet

Saadi Yousef , native_name_lang = , pseudonym = , birth_name = , birth_date = , birth_place = Abu Al-Khaseeb, Iraq , death_date = , death_place = London, England , resting_place = , occupation = , ...

. Maguire was the founder and director of the Poetry Translation Centre, which opened in 2004. The Sarah Maguire Prize for Poetry in Translation was launched by the Poetry Translation Centre on 12 September 2019 to recognise and encourage quality translation of poetry into English.Introducing the Sarah Maguire Prize, Poetrytranslation.org, 22 Sept 2019. https://www.poetrytranslation.org/articles/introducing-the-sarah-maguire-prize

Awards

* 2008:

Cholmondeley Award The Cholmondeley Awards () are annual awards for poetry given by the Society of Authors in the United Kingdom. Awards honour distinguished poets, from a fund endowed by the Dowager Marchioness of Cholmondeley in 1966. Since 1991 the award has be ...

* 2001-03; Royal Literary Fund Writing Fellow at School of Oriental & African Studies,

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

Works

Poetry Books

* * * *

Edited

* *

Translations

* * * *

Anthologies

References

External links

"Sarah Maguire"
''The British Council'' * James Byrne
"Interview"
''Wolf Magazine'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Maguire, Sarah 1957 births 2017 deaths English women poets Writers from London 20th-century British poets 21st-century British poets 20th-century English women writers 20th-century English writers 21st-century English women writers