The Search Is On to Find the Nation’s Best High School Writers: Introducing Spark a Story

BOSTON – Heading into national short story month, global learning company Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH) today announced a new competition to find and encourage the nation’s best high school writing. Spark a Story will open for entries in the fall of the 2016-2017 school year and will focus on original short stories (fiction). The writing contest will culminate in an anthology featuring the winning entries that will be published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

“Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has published the Best American Short Stories collections for over one hundred years,” said Bruce Nichols, SVP and Publisher, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Trade Publishing. “With Spark a Story, we hope to uncover the very best of America’s young short story writers, the students who may one day feature in our Best American series and be part of the next generation of U.S. authors."

Spark a Story is part of HMH’s Spark a Mind campaign, which celebrates everyday moments of learning in the classroom and beyond. Submissions will be open from Aug. 1 – Oct. 7, 2016 and writing contest winners will be selected by the editorial team at HMH’s trade division.  

Spark a Story is being launched before the end of the current school year in the hope of fostering summer writing activity. HMH will be working with high school English Language Arts educators to encourage students to work on their short stories over the summer holidays.

To sign up for contest notifications or to find out more, including full contest rules, please go to www.hmhco.com/common/spark-a-story.

About Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (NASDAQ:HMHC) is a global learning company dedicated to changing people’s lives by fostering passionate, curious learners. As a leading provider of pre-K–12 education content, services, and cutting-edge technology solutions across a variety of media, HMH enables learning in a changing landscape. HMH is uniquely positioned to create engaging and effective educational content and experiences from early childhood to beyond the classroom.  HMH serves more than 50 million students in over 150 countries worldwide, while its award-winning children's books, novels, non-fiction, and reference titles are enjoyed by readers throughout the world. For more information, visit www.hmhco.com.

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