As both a global learning company and award-winning publishing house, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt sought to weave together its educational and literary expertise to inspireyoung writers across the United States and celebrate their work. HMH launched the first-ever Spark a Story writing competition for high school students, and received submissions from teens across the country. In the spirit of HMH’s Best American series, the Spark a Story collection includes twenty short stories from this competition, as selected by HMH editors. The anthology offers a diverse set of pieces from some of today’s promising teen writers, many of whom aspire to continue exploring the role writing will play in their lives.