English Department to Hold STEM-Themed Poetry Contest

The East Central College English Department will hold its first-ever STEM-themed poetry contest.

The contest calls for poems with topics relating to Science, Technology, Engineering and/or Math, commonly referred to as STEM.

STEM isn’t the first thing that people think when writing or reading poetry, according to Josh Stroup, instructor and English department chair.

“The fields of math, science, technology and engineering have much more to do with poetry than one may think,” he said.

“Both poetry and STEM are about making the invisible visible, and we hope that writing about science and math will make that even clearer to our students.”

Submit poems as an email attachment to Stroup at joshua.stroup@eastcentral.edu. The deadline to submit is Wednesday, Oct. 27.

The top three winners of the poetry contest will win cash prizes of $25, $50 or $100. Winners will be announced via email on Nov. 16.

Listed below are the poetry contest submission guidelines:

• Must be a current ECC student.
• Entries must be typed in MS Word, Open Office or Libre Office.
• Maximum of five poems per student.
• Entrant’s name, phone number and email address must appear on a cover page with a list of poem titles enclosed.
• Each poem must be single spaced, aligned to the left and in 12-point Times New Roman font.
• Enter poems with topics relating to science, technology, engineering and/or math.
• Please use imagery and avoid clichés.