4-Year-Old Signs Book Deal to Publish Poems A 4-year-old boy from the UK has signed a book deal to publish his collection of poems. Nadim Shamma-Sourgen was discovered by poet and teacher Kate Clanchy, who won the 2020 Orwell Prize for political writing. Clanchy knew Shamma-Sourgen's mother, who teaches the study of poetry at the University of Reading. Clanchy began sharing Shamma-Sourgen's poems on Twitter, where they became popular with her followers. Speaking to The Guardian, Clanchy said that she didn't share them because they were like an adult's poems, but because they were so much like a child's way of thinking. The young poet has now signed a book deal with Walker Books, a children's book company, making him one of the youngest writers to get a book deal. According to Guinness World Records, Dorothy Straight from the US is the youngest female to publish a book. She wrote a book in 1962 when she was 4 years old. It was published in 1964. The youngest male writer is Thanuwana Serasinghe from Sri Lanka, who wrote a book when he was 4 years and 9 months old. It was published nine days before his 5th birthday. In an interview with Sky News, Shamma-Sourgen's mother said that he's still learning to read and write, so he speaks his poems out loud and she writes them down for him. "I like writing poems especially about nature. I feel happy that my poems will be in a book," Shamma-Sourgen told The Guardian. As well as nature, Shamma-Sourgen's poems talk about things like love, being lonely and bugs in his garden. The book of poems will be published in summer 2021.