I’m going to be moderating the travel story competition judging debate for Leap Local in the autumn. There’s a $500 first place prize (for just a 500-650 word story) and there are two $150 runners-up prizes.

New to the judging panel this year are: J. Maarten Troost author of “The Sex Lives of Cannibals” and “Getting Stoned With Savages”, and Lavinia Spalding author of “Writing Away: A Creative Guide to Awakening the Journal Writing Traveler” (named one of the best travel books of 2009 by the L.A. Times).

The returning judges are: A Rotten Person/Gary Buslik the author of “A Rotten Person Travels the Caribbean” and “The Missionary’s Position” (Gary accidentally urinated on Idi Amin – oh, and I have a crush on him – Gary, not Idi Amin – but Gary has a crush on Lavinia Spalding, so, this will be interesting), and joining us again, poet of four published books and jurist for Canada’s prestigious Governor General’s Awards Kimmy Beach (Kimmy is the only person I know who can write about ground beef or a steering wheel and I have to go take a cold shower after reading), plus coming back for more and he’s possibly more immoderate than myself Travelers’ Tales’ Sean O’Reilly (editor, entrepreneur, author and master of outrage) – this man reads thousands of travel stories every year and won’t be pulling punches, and vroom vroom Peter Moore (Australia’s most popular travel writer, author of seven books) who may love Vespas but can for sure deal with Sean’s punches with a good punchline, and lucky for Leap Local Vicky Baker (the Guardian, Reuters) the champion of local travel is returning for a third year to judge both the travel writing competition and the international competition for local guides and services.