Poem Fire

Frank X. Gaspar was born and raised in Provincetown, Massachusetts, of Azorean Descent (Pico, Sao Miguel). He is the author of five collections of poetry, including Late Rapturous (Autumn House Press, 2012) and Night of a Thousand Blossoms (Alice James Books, 2004), named one of Library Journal’s Best Poetry of 2004, and two novels. Among his many awards are multiple inclusions in Best American Poetry, four Pushcart Prizes, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Literature, and a California Arts Council Fellowship in poetry. His debut novel, Leaving Pico, was a Barnes and Noble Discovery Prize winner, a recipient of the California Book Award for First Fiction, and a New York Times Notable Book. Currently, he teaches in the MFA Writing Program at Pacific University, Oregon, and lives in Long Beach, CA.

"Frank is a master poet—the surprise and exactitude of his diction, the acute vision of his images, his insight into the human condition and his stunning expression of it, as in this line: it’s never the aboutness of anything but the wailing underneath it. The poems, as Whitman wrote, contain multitudes." —Ellen Bass, from the introduction for Poem Fire"Frank X. Gaspar is an extraordinarily rare gift in our world: a poet who wishes to see it all, to bring the entire overwhelming experience of life and death into the forge of his heart, and to transform it there—not into a tidy truth, but into a great art that shows us the miraculous grace of what was, what is, and what—together and alone—we can be." —Joseph Fasano, author of The Last Song of the World“I love Frank X. Gaspar’s poems, and not only because of the distinctive take he brings forth in some of these poems about the American War in Viet Nam, although they are admirable and strikingly original in their regard for a war still fought in the hallways of academe. What’s most moving to me about this work is the way Gaspar is able to wed a finely tuned regard for form, with the sweeping arch of his vivid imagination. This collection is fresh and new and struggles to say that more is possible in our poetry than we’d previously imagined. I believe it’s that good. I also know that it’s a collection that I want to share with my poet and writer friends for the rich variety of poetic expression that can be found here. If you love poetry, this is a collection you’ll want to have. I know I will return to these poems, often." —Bruce Weigl, author of Apostle of Desire