Graduation from high school?

A senior thesis?

A betrayal by someone you love?

A loss of innocence?

The death of a parent?

Losing the family you always wished you had?

Facing a harsh reality?

What's the line that separates childhood from the "real world"? And what happens when it's nothing you imagined it would be?

Do you want to be a published author?

The editors at HarperCollins invite you to submit a short story about a character who has to face the "real world" for the first time. The story must involve a single, life-changing event. First prize is the opportunity to be published alongside your favorite authors in the paperback edition of the No Such Thing as the Real World collection. All stories must be between 5,000 and 10,000 words long, and all contributing authors must be between fourteen and nineteen years old.

Chapter One...

The flickering streetlamp outside the window casts a tangerine glow in the small bedroom. The unsteady light pushes past the venetian blinds, throws trembling horizontal stripes on the empty beige walls. The shadows stretch up to the ceiling, where, taped over the bed, there is a slightly skewed poster of paradise: blinding white sand, flat stretch of blue-green crystal water, and the lone couple walking far in the distance. The vision circumscribes each day like bookends.

In the corner, near an open door that leads to a dark hallway, a small makeup mirror sits squarely in the middle of a desk. Pencils and pens pushed aside. A chemistry textbook balances precariously on the corner. The pages of a returned English short story marked with heavy underlinings and bold exclamation points litter the floor. Amid all the clutter, Fay leans forward and bows her head to the mirror as if readying for prayer. Without blinking, without a single tremor in her hand, she draws the black eyeliner along the moist pink edge of her lower lid.

A phone rings in the distance. An older woman holding a baby against her hip walks into the hallway and turns on the light. She sets the baby on the floor and answers the phone. The baby is drawn to the light of the mirror, crawling quickly down the hall. Fay's eyes flicker toward the movement. She reaches out with her foot. And kicks shut the door.

M. T. Anderson is the critically acclaimed author of many picture books and novels, including Feed, which was a National Book Award finalist, and The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing,, Traitor to the Nation, Volume 1: The Pox Party, which won a National Book Award and was a Michael L. Printz Honor Book.

K. L. Going is the author of the Garden of Eve, Saint Iggy, The Liberation of Gabriel King, and Fat Kid Rules the World, which was named a Michael L. Printz Honor Book.

Beth Kephart was named a National Book Award finalist for her memoir A Slant of Sun: One Child's Courage . She is also the author of the novels Nothing But Ghosts, House of Dance, and Undercover.

Chris Lynch is the National Book Award-nominated author of Inexcusable. He has written many other novels, including the Michael L. Printz Honor Book Freewill, Iceman, Shadow boxer, Gold Dust, and Slot Machine, all five of which were named ALA Best Books for Young Adults.

An Na's first novel, A Step From Heaven, won the Michael L. Printz Award and was a National Book Award finalist. She is also the author of The Fold and Wait For Me, which was an ALA Best Book for Young Adults.

Jacqueline Woodson was awarded Newbery honors for her books Feathers and Show Way and was a National Book Award finalist for her books Hush and Locomotion; the latter also received a Coretta Scott King Honor, as did her books I Hadn't Meant to Tell You This and From the Notebooks Of Melanin Sun. Miracle's Boys won the Coretta Scott King Award.