Len Gasparini was born in Windsor, Ontario, across the river from Detroit. A former semi-pro baseball player, he left school at 17 to embark on a lyric quest for objective experience; and he spent some time in the U.S. Navy.

His poetry includes Breaking and Entering, Ink From an Octopus, Selected Poems, and, for children, I Once Had a Pet Praying Mantis. In 1990, he was awarded the F.G. Bressani Literary Prize for poetry. Gasparini has also been a poetry-review editor for Books in Canada and Poetry Canada Review.