Poet's Corner Features Acclaimed (and Local) Luso-American Writers

By: iO Staff, August 27, 2012

The Poets’ Corner Open Mic night at the Cultural Center of Cape Cod will feature a shortened open mic on Thursday, August 30, followed by three Luso-American poets: Provincetown natives Frank X. Gaspar and Oona Patrick, and Jarita Davis of West Falmouth.

Davis has a PhD in creative writing from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and was the writer in residence at the Nantucket Historical Association. She has received fellowships from the Mellon Mayes program, Cave Canem, Hedgebrook and the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center. In addition, she was awarded a Woodrow Wilson Travel Research Grant, a Neiheisel Phi Beta Kappa Award and a grant from the Louisiana Division of the Arts. Most recently her manuscript “As if Returning Home” was chosen as a finalist for the Cave Canem First Book Prize.  

Gaspar was born and raised in the old Portuguese West End of Provincetown. A graduate of the MFA program in writing at the University of California Irvine, he is the author of five collections of poetry 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.

Gaspar's debut novel, “Leaving Pico,” was a Barnes & Noble Discovery Prize winner, a recipient of the California Book Award for First Fiction and a New York Times Notable Book. His second novel, “Stealing Fatima,” was a MassBook of the Year in fiction. His new collection of poems, “Late Rapturous,” was published by Autumn House in July. Gaspar is currently at work on a new novel.

Patrick is a Provincetown native who lives in Brooklyn, New York. She earned degrees from Brown University and the Bennington Writing Seminars, and writes about her family’s history in Portuguese Provincetown and the Azores Islands. Her writing has received Notable Essay citations in “Best American Essays” and “Best American Travel Writing.” After traveling to Portugal for residencies, she became the Luso-American Liaison for the Dzanc Books/CNC Disquiet International Literary Program in Lisbon, Portugal. She also runs the online group for Presence/Presença, a new community for North American writers of the Portuguese diaspora.