Published Works and Awards
The Boneheap in the Lion's Den
PRAISE FOR THE BONEHEAP IN THE LION'S DEN
The poems in Maya J. Sorini's The Boneheap in the Lion's Den take us inside the intense and often gruesome world of a hospital trauma unit, a milieu both surreal and (often) deadly real. Sorini never looks away from the hard stuff—in fact, the hard stuff is where she starts—but her gorgeous, precise lines and rhythms make this book unputdownable, despite the human instinct to look away. I finished this book grateful and changed.
—Lynn Melnick, author of Refusenik and Landscape with Sex and Violence
Maya Sorini's verse travels to the frontier of life and death, staring down the sublime, probing the capacity of language. As a witness grappling with the grave responsibilities of the clinician, her poems are beautiful—alternatingly lyrical and blunt—challenging the reader to walk beside her.
—Danielle Spencer, PhD, Director, Narrative Medicine Program at Columbia University
The Boneheap in the Lion's Den takes the reader to that intersection where life meets death, pain meets relief, and hope meets fear. Only a few of us live there and we do what we do so that you will hopefully be able to live as you do. Welcome to our world.
—Thomas M. Scalea, MD, Physician in Chief, Shock Trauma Center, University of Maryland Medical Center
The Perfect Doctor Anthology
I Tried Not To Write Anthology
Literary Awards
2024: Semifinalist in the 2024 Poetry Society of Virginia North American Poetry Book Award, The Boneheap in the Lion's Den
2024: Awarded 3rd Place in William Carlos Williams Poetry Competition hosted by NEOMED, "Memory Remains Blood Soluble"
2023: Won the Press 53 Award for Poetry, The Boneheap in the Lion's Den
2023: Won the Lucky Jefferson Poetry and Prose Contest, "Insurmountable"
2023: Honorable mention in the 2023 Hope Babette Tang Humanism in Healthcare Essay Contest, "Working Dogs"
2023: Nominated for a 2023 Pushcart Prize, "What Does a Medical Student Do All Day?"
2023: Longlist for Letter Review Prize for Poetry, "A Proof"
2022: Won the Society of General Internal Medicine Poetry Contest, "What I Learned"
Prose
"How You Failed Me." The Perfect Doctor. Yakhkind, Sasha, Pager Press p. 101-103 (2024)
"The New St. Louis Arch." Tendon Magazine, (2024)
"Pill Mills Are Back, And They're Not for Pain Anymore." Panacea: Writing for Health, (2023)
Poems
"Memory Remains Blood Soluble." Journal of Medical Humanities (2024)
"Stickout." The Brown Journal of Medical Humanities, (2024)
"Doctor's Hands." Ripple Magazine, (2024)
"Weeds." Lagniappe Literature and Art Magazine, (2023)
"What Does a Medical Student Do All Day?" Intima: A Journal of Narrative Medicine, (2023)
"Insurmountable." Lucky Jefferson, (2023)
"Mars." Doximity: Op-Med, (2023)
"Fledgeling." Ripple Magazine, (2023)
"Mudded Water." Auxocardia, (2023)
"What It's Like Off Shift." Auxocardia, (2022)
"Now That the Kids Have Gotten Their Shots." Doximity: Op-Med, (2022)
"The Doorbell Rings, I Am Off My Meds." Intima: A Journal of Narrative Medicine, (2022)
"Trauma Surgeon Ars Poetica." Journal of the American Medical Association, (2022)
"The Body Only Speaks Her Own Language." Tofu Ink Arts Press, (2022)
"Psalm for My Body." Tofu Ink Arts Press, (2022)
"Bone Seam Song." Tofu Ink Arts Press, (2022)
"Precious Metals." Doximity: Op-Med, (2022)
"In Defense of the ICD System." Snapdragon: A Journal of Arts and Healing, (2021)
"Endings." Tendon Magazine, (2021)
"The Patron Saint of Broken Glass." Tendon Magazine, (2021)
"New Dreams." Tendon Magazine, (2021)
"Hurting Instructions." Tendon Magazine, (2020)
"Losing Her." Tendon Magazine, (2020)