Fifteen young adult authors and one real-life rock star band together for one epic—and interconnected—take on a memorable high school rite of passage.

A daughter of rock ’n’ roll royalty has a secret crush. A lonely ticket taker worries about his sister. An almost-famous songwriter nurses old wounds. A stage manager tires of being behind the scenes. A singer-songwriter struggles to untangle her feelings for her best friend and his girlfriend. In this live-out-loud anthology, the disparate protagonists of sixteen stories are thrown together for one unforgettable event: their high school’s battle of the bands.

Told in a harmonic blend of first- and third-person narrative voices, roughly chronological short stories offer a kaleidoscopic view of the same transformative night. Featuring an entry from Justin Courtney Pierre, lead vocalist of Motion City Soundtrack, Battle of the Bands is a celebration of youth, music, and meeting the challenges of life head-on. With stories by Brittany Cavallaro, Preeti Chhibber, Jay Coles, Katie Cotugno, Lauren Gibaldi, Shaun David Hutchinson, Ashley Poston, Jenny Torres Sanchez, Sarah Nicole Smetana, Eric Smith, Jenn Marie Thorne, Sarvenaz Taghavian, Jasmine Warga, Ashley Woodfolk, and Jeff Zentner, and featuring Motion City Soundtrack’s Justin Courtney Pierre.

• 16 interconnected stories center around one of high school's most epic events, the battle of the bands. This one has been optioned for TV by Playground Entertainment, who produced the Broadway musical Dear Evan Hansen 
• Features contributions from some well-known names in YA, including New York Times Bestselling author Jasmine Warga, Brittany Cavallaro, Preeti Chhibber, Lauren Gibaldi, Eric Smith, and Jeff Zentner, as well as a real-life professional musician (Justin Courtney Pierre) 
• This is a true passion project for the 16 contributors and they're psyched to use their various platforms to promote the heck out of this anthology!