Frank X. Gaspar

Frank Xavier Gaspar (born 1946) is an American poet and novelist.

Born in Provincetown, Massachusetts, Gaspar served in the U.S. Navy in the Vietnam War. He earned an MFA from the University of California, Irvine. He teaches at Long Beach City College in Long Beach, California.

He won the 1988 Morse Poetry Prize, selected by Mary Oliver, for his first collection of poetry, "The Holyoke". Gaspar won the 1994 Anhinga Prize for Poetry, selected by Joy Harjo, for his book "Mass for the Grace of a Happy Death ". "A Field Guide to the Heavens" was selected by Robert Bly as the 1999 winner of the Brittingham Prize in Poetry. His novel "Leaving Pico" won the Barnes and Noble Discover Award and the California Book Award for First Fiction. His poetry has been anthologized in "Best American Poetry" 1996 and 2000. He has also won a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and a Pushcart Prize.

Works

* "Night of a Thousand Blossoms ", poetry (Farmington: Alice James Books, 2004)
* "A Field Guide to the Heavens", poetry (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1999)
* "Leaving Pico ", novel (Hanover: University Press of New England, 1999)
* "Mass for the Grace of a Happy Death ", poetry (Tallahassee: Anhinga Press, 1995)
* "The Holyoke", poetry (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1988)

ources

"Contemporary Authors Online". The Gale Group, 2002. PEN (Permanent Entry Number): 0000138095