Winner of the 2016 Cliff Becker Book Prize in Translation "In Returnings , we are treated to an essay on the imaginative possibilities of a great poet, long exiled from his native land, turning memory into verse, recovering from the past everything that counts: love and friendship and the landscapes that shaped him. Through alleyways and storied ruins, colors and autumn and war, Alberti discovers poetry at every turn."—Christopher Merrill, prize judge "The musical language that drives these urgent poems is echoed exquisitely in Carolyn Tipton's translations."—Stephen Kessler Rafael Alberti was one of the greatest poets of twentieth-century Spain. Poet and translator Carolyn L. Tipton teaches at the University of California, Berkeley. Rafael Alberti: Rafael Alberti was one of the greatest poets of 20th century Spain. At the Spanish Civil War, Alberti, along with the rest of his Generation who had not been caught or killed, fled. His exile from Spain was to last almost 40 years. He died in 1999. Carolyn Tipton: Carolyn L. Tipton is a poet, translator, and teacher at the University of California, Berkeley. Her awards include fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts. Her translation of To Painting: Rafael Alberti, won the National Translation Award.