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Friday, October 8, 2010

An unusual exercise


South Pacific Press - call for maths poems
Submission deadline: 5pm, Tuesday 21 October
South Pacific Press (SPP) is searching for Math poems for an upcoming book for the American middle school market. The book of math poems will be part of a wider series, which will contain titles across English, Math, Science and Social Studies.

Successful maths poems will:
* Be of suitable tone and difficulty for 9/10-year-old children (US Grade 4/NZ Year 5)
* Be written in US English
* Be engaging
* Contain elements of humour
* Gather momentum throughout
* Help the reader think differently, or "outside the square"
* Open up new worlds to the reader's imagination
* Be uncomplicated to read, yet contain complex ideas
* Preferably be between 50 and 250 words
* Be submitted by email as Word attachments
* Be based on one or more of the following mathematical areas:
o Numbers and operations
o Algebra
o Geometry
o Measurement
o Probability
o Problem solving.

Fees and use of work:
~ SPP will select and purchase poems for a one-off fee of NZD $250 each.
~ SPP will purchase the copyright in the work.
~ Authors will retain all moral rights.
~ Please don't submit previously published work.
~ Authors will be notified if their work is selected by Friday October 22, 2010 at 5pm.
~ Writers may submit more than one poem.

Please email submissions to: Matt Comeskey at maths.poems@gmail.com

4 comments:

  1. Aaack! Math? I fear any poem I wrote would only bring my inadequacies in the field, to light.
    Algebra?Calculus?Fractions?

    I was really good at Times Tables. That's it. I don't think they want a poem about that.

    Kat

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  2. That's a cool challenge! And one hell of a mental exercise - I'm tempted.

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  3. Kat, I don't think you need to know a lot about maths, or math as ye call it. I whipped off one called "Who are the mysterious x, y and z?" Doesn't mean I have the capacity to unmask them!!
    Titus, - I was tempted by the fee more than the mental exercise!

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  4. Hadn't noticed that! How much in £ Sterling, I wonder?
    Must tell Deemikay of Stars Sliding. He actually writes maths poems all the time. They are not, it should be said, always comprehensible.

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