Cliff Becker, NEA Literature Director 1999-2005
The Cliff Becker Book Prize, for an as-yet-unpublished book-length collection of poetry in translation, comes with a $1000 purse and publication by White Pine Press. This year’s prize – the fourth in its history – has been awarded to Carolyn Tipton for her translation of Returnings: Poems of Love and Distance by Spanish poet Rafael Alberti. Christopher Merrill judged this year’s prize. The runners-up are Unexpected Development by Klaus Merz, translated from the Swiss German by Marc Vincenz, and Cat & Mouse: Selected Poems by Inna Kabysh, translated from the Russian by Katherine Young. You’ll find more information, including the judge’s statement about the book, here.
Tipton’s translations of Alberti’s poems will be published in time for the ALTA (American Literary Translators Association) conference, which will be held this October in San Francisco.
Congratulations to Carolyn Tipton and her fellow finalists!