Carolyn L. Tipton
Carolyn Tipton
Carolyn L. Tipton is a poet, translator, and teacher.
Her first book of translations of the poetry of Rafael Alberti, To Painting (Northwestern University Press), won the National Translation Award. It was a finalist for the PEN West Award in Literary Translation and was selected by Poet Laureate Robert Hass for Poet’s Choice.
Her latest translation of Alberti, Returnings: Poems of Love and Distance (White Pine Press), is the recipient of the Cliff Becker Translation Prize.
She is the author of a collection of original poetry, The Poet of Poet Laval, published in Spring 2019 by Salmon Poetry Press.
From Salmon Poetry Press
The Poet of Poet Laval by Carolyn Tipton
Salmon Poetry Press is delighted to announce the publication of a book of original poems by Carolyn Tipton, The Poet of Poet Laval. Renowned for her translations of Rafael Alberti, Tipton turns her poetic gaze on her own experience in this intimate and wide-ranging collection of verse.
Salmon Poetry Press and Carolyn Tipton will celebrate the launch of The Poet of Poet Laval at the AWP Conference in Portland with a series of author readings and book signings.
ABOUT CAROLYN| CONTACT | UPCOMING EVENTS
Carolyn Tipton on The Poet of Poet Laval
“This collection begins with poems that celebrate openings, moments that give an abundant sense of possibility. The poems that follow sometimes return to the theme of opening, but they may also move—through the means of transitional poems—on to other themes: death and the Spanish Civil War, art and different perspectives on creating, love, with its dazzlement and despair.
The book ends with a series of poems about our very reciprocal relationship with the natural world, noting especially the ways in which it speaks to us—the green flash! Sometimes, the poems register dissolution and loss. Yet they also capture compensations, saving graces, and window-moments that have the power to change our perception, or simply delight us with the surprise of a small revelation.”
— Carolyn Tipton
“Carolyn Tipton´s moving translation recreates Alberti’s powerful imaginings and musicality.” — Lisa Rose Bradford, National Translation Award Winner
Now available
Returnings: Poems of Love and Distance
by Rafael Alberti
translated and with an introduction by Carolyn L. Tipton
Winner of the Cliff Becker Translation Prize
“In those years of Argentinian exile, my distant Spanish life would present itself to me down to the minutest details. The memories…would invade me hour by hour, making of my poem, not an elegy for things that were dead but, on the contrary, a living presence...” Rafael Alberti
Returnings: Poems of Love and Distance is a book of luminous evocations of people and places written by one of the twentieth century’s greatest poets.
Spanish poet, painter and political activist Rafael Alberti endured almost four decades in political exile. In the sensual, musical, varied lyrical style he is famous for, the poems in Returnings celebrate the enduring beauties of the country he loved and had to leave behind.
Widely known and treasured by readers of Spanish, Returnings now appears for the first time in this complete English translation from acclaimed Alberti translator Carolyn L. Tipton.
Buy now from your local bookseller or order from these outlets:
WHITE PINE PRESS | AMAZON USA | AMAZON CANADA
Returnings | Rafael Alberti | Carolyn Tipton Bio
Praise for Returnings
“Through alleyways and storied ruins, colors, autumn and war, Alberti discovers poetry at every turn.” Christopher Merrill, Cliff Becker Prize Judge
“Unapologetically romantic…Rafael Alberti’s Returnings burn with erotic intensity fueled by the melancholy of exile, the longing of nostalgia and the consolation of memory.” Stephen Kessler, winner of the Harold Morton Landon Translation Award from the Academy of American Poets
“One of his most beautiful and profound books.” José Luis Cano, Writer and critic
“Probably his deepest and most personal book, the most valid for the present moment.” Alejandro Valero, Writer and critic
Creating Openings, Paying Attention and Taking Heart: An Interview with Carolyn Tipton
Poet Carolyn Tipton talks about travel, history, the adventure of translating Rafael Alberti and her latest book, a collection of original poems, The Poet of Poet Laval.
Returnings Awarded Cliff Becker Translation Prize
Carolyn Tipton wins Cliff Becker Translation Prize for Returnings: Poems of Love and Distance by Rafael Alberti. Pictured: Carolyn Tipton with Rafael Alberti in Madrid.
Rafael Alberti
Rafael Alberti, poet, painter, exile. Read more about one of Spain’s most beloved poets, the author of Returnings: Poems of Love and Distance and To Painting.
“Translated to stunning effect by Carolyn Tipton.”
—Robert Hass
To Painting by Rafael Alberti
translated and with an introduction by Carolyn L. Tipton
Winner of the National Translation Award
Rafael Alberti is one of Spain’s greatest poets, and was a leading member of the famed Generation of ’27. Yet Alberti originally trained as a painter and poetry was his second art.
To Painting, fuses Alberti’s two great passions into a unique and unforgettable collection of verse dedicated to painting.
Poems to colors and individual painters (Bosch, Velazquez, Van Gogh and more) join poems to the elements of painting—the hand, the line, the retina, the palette—in a celebration of all aspects of painting.
Sensitively rendered into English for the first time by renown Alberti translater Carolyn L. Tipton, To Painting is a work of grand design and noble vision: a book not to be missed.
“The poems sparkle.” —San Francisco Bay Guardian
“A work of art.” —Library Journal
“The total impression of the book is of light, love, joy.”—Harvard Review