Spera, Gabriel: - Gabriel Spera's first collection of poetry, The Standing Wave, was selected by Dave Smith for the National Poetry Series and subsequently received the Literary Book Award in Poetry from PEN USA-West. Additional honors include a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. He has a BA from Cornell University and an MFA from the University of North Carolina, Greensboro. He grew up in New Jersey and now lives in Los Angeles with his wife and three daughters.