Contest Update--Submissions Closed!

First of all, thank you all for making the 2016 I Must Be Off! Travel Writing Competition a busy task for myself and this year's judge, Paola Fornari. We have been around the world with you and back. All the entries are in and the final decisions are being made. A longlist of the top 10% of submissions will be published here in the coming days, so keep an eye on this space. If the title of your entry is on the longlist, you are still in the running; if your title is not on the list, this means you're entry has not made it further in the competition. This does not mean we didn't enjoy your work. In fact, I can say I loved reading all 647 entries this year. I can also say that I've done little else in the last couple of weeks, and I'm sure Paola can say the same.

To answer a few questions I've received:
All submissions have been read blind by Paola Fornari. All identifying information was removed before entries were sent to her. Of course gender and nationality are often revealed in the entry itself. All top-ten entries will go through a vetting process to make sure they have not been previously published (including posts on personal blogs) and they are not plagiarized. Due to the extraordinarily high number of entries this year, we regret that we won't be able to send personal rejections. Please refer to the lists published at I Must Be Off! to find out whether your entry has advanced in the competition. If your story makes it to the shortlist, you can expect an email from me; otherwise, please know that we enjoyed your work and we are grateful for your participation but--as with all competitions--some entries simply struck a more resounding chord than others.Again, thank you so much for taking us on your adventures. Keep an eye on I Must Be Off! for the longlist. We're almost there.

In the meantime, why not check out a story of mine that The Journal of Compressed Creative Arts published yesterday? 

I must be off,
Christopher

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Christopher Allen is the author of Conversations with S. Teri O'Type (a Satire), an episodic adult cartoon about a man struggling with expectations. Allen's writing has appeared, or is forthcoming, in Juked, Eclectica Magazine's 20th-Anniversary Best of Speculative anthology, Indiana Review, Night Train, The Journal of Compressed Creative Arts, [PANK] blog, Necessary Fiction, Word Riot, Bootsnall Travel, and lots of other good places. A finalist at Glimmer Train in 2011, Allen has been nominated for Best of the Net, the storySouth Million Writers Award, and the Pushcart Prize twice.