Winner, The Poetry Box^(R) Chapbook Prize 2024

In his prize-winning poetry collection, The Pronunciation Part, based on his 35 years as a cardiothoracic surgeon, Flavian Mark Lupinetti presents the triumphs and tragedies of the practice of medicine. The reader will explore the operating room, the emergency room, the intensive care unit, and the secrets of the human heart-in every sense of the word.

"These poems have the propulsive force of a page-turning novel coupled with accurate, edgy language that lends wit to even the grimmest situations. The poems are so vivid, I can see the chapbook as a short film."

-Donna Hilbert, contest judge, author of Enormous Blue Umbrella

"From the first poem to the last, Lupinetti held me in his electric language thrall, with his unforgettable, impeccably crafted imagery where every single end line was a gut punch."

-Pamela Uschuk, author of Refugee and Crazy Love, American Book Award

"Only a perspective hard-won from decades in the operating room, and in the mind's operating room, could devastate and console with passages like the only clue the patient has/ about the quality of the surgery/ is how well you closed the skin... I admire this excellent collection of poems."

-Ed Skoog, author of Mister Skylight, and Travelers Leaving for the City