Some reviewers questioned how accessible If Not, Winter was for lay readers. Elizabeth Robinson described Carson's translations of Sappho's poems "small miracles of vividness". Margaret Reynolds called the translations "subtle, beautiful, precise, moving". Both Emily Greenwood and Meryl Altman admired the translation for its minimalism Greenwood describing it as "elegantly plain" and Altman as "spare and elegant". Dimitrios Yatromanolakis described Carson's translations as being of "remarkable accuracy and subtleness", and concluded that the book was "perhaps the most significant" recent (as of 2004) English translation of Sappho. If Not, Winter was praised by reviewers for its translations. Carson attempts to follow the word order of the Greek text as closely as possible, and not to add any words which cannot be found in the surviving Greek texts of Sappho, such as personal pronouns and definite articles. Along with Carson's translations, with Greek text on facing pages, the book has a short introduction, notes on the translation, a "who's who" of names in Sappho's poetry, and translations of selected ancient writings about Sappho. If Not, Winter uses the Greek text of Eva-Maria Voigt's Sappho and Alcaeus with a few variations.
The title comes from Carson's translation of Sappho's fragment 22. In 2019, the Folio Society produced an edition of If Not, Winter illustrated by Jenny Holzer. If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho is a book of translations of the poetry of Sappho by the Canadian classicist and poet Anne Carson, first published in 2002.
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