Description

“These poems have the propulsive force of a page-turning novel…” —Donna Hilbert, Guest Judge

The Pronunciation Part

by Flavian Mark Lupinetti

Grand Prize Winner, The Poetry Box 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.

Early Praise:

I read The Pronunciation Part in one sitting the first time around. Now, a few months later, I have read it straight through again, and with the same amazement and pleasure. 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. There is a historical line of physician literary artists. With The Pronunciation Part, Flavian Mark Lupinetti joins the tradition.

—Donna Hilbert, contest judge, author of Threnody and Enormous Blue Umbrella

Tough, a master storyteller, irreverent with a biting ironic sense of humor, a scalpel sharp intellect and deep compassion to match, Mark Lupinetti is a rare poet. This debut collection, The Pronunciation Part, opens onto a world readers of poetry seldom see, the world of a heart surgeon who performed decades of heart transplants and surgeries as well as worked in a hospital ER helping patients who ranged from pandemic Covid patients to gunshot victims. Who is more qualified to be a poet than a heart surgeon? The best poets are always heart surgeons resurrecting our hearts. Mark Lupinetti is a stunning example. Particularly moving is his poem, “Peonies” for his wife who died of cancer: I remember the night you estimated how many times I told you I loved you./I remember how you loved peonies, like the peonies I planted on your grave. 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

Crafting lived experience into thoughtful, compelling art is one of the things a poet can do, and exactly what Mark Lupinetti does in The Pronunciation Part. The poems in this chapbook are narrative driven, cohesive and have a tight-fisted muscularity to them, not unlike the human heart. Lupinetti’s work makes the political intricately personal and thoroughly felt.

—Elizabeth Jacobson author of Not into the Blossoms and Not into the Air

These poems align the practices of medicine and the lyric imagination, exploring the complexities, limits and revelations of both getting it right and getting it wrong. 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, as in “Surgery Interns Know the Rules.” I admire this excellent collection of poems.

—Ed Skoog, author of Mister Skylight, Rough Day and Travelers Leaving for the City

About the Author

Flavian Mark Lupinetti, a Pushcart nominated poet, fiction writer, and cardiac surgeon, received his MFA from the Vermont College of Fine Arts. He received first place awards in the 2023 Social Justice Poetry Contest sponsored by Sport Literate and the 2014 Betsy Sholl Poetry Award sponsored by Words and Images. His creative writing has appeared in Bellevue Literary Review, Cutthroat, december, Redivider, ZYZZYVA, and other publications, and his contributions to the scientific literature include more than 90 peer-reviewed papers, research studies, and monographs. A native of West Virginia, Mark now lives in New Mexico.