Frank Xavier Gaspar is an American poet, novelist and professor of Portuguese descent.
A number of his books treat Portuguese-American themes or settings, particularly the Portuguese community in Provincetown, Massachusetts.
His first collection of poetry, The Holyoke, won the 1988 Morse Poetry Prize (selected by Mary Oliver); Mass for the Grace of a Happy Death won the 1994 Anhinga Prize for Poetry (selected by Joy Harjo); A Field Guide to the Heavens won the 1999 Brittingham Prize in Poetry (selected by Robert Bly;[1] his novel, Leaving Pico, won the California Book Award For First Fiction,[2] and the Barnes & Noble Discovery Award.,[3] and Stealing Fatima was a Massbook of the year in fiction (Massachusetts Center for the Book).
Born in Provincetown, Massachusetts,[7] in 1966 Gaspar joined the U.S. Navy and served for 3+1⁄2 years, including two tours on the aircraft carrier USS Hornet (CV-12) during the Vietnam War and the recovery of Apollo 11 space module.
During fall semester of 2010, he taught in the Department of English at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth as the Endowed Chair Professor in Portuguese Studies.