Deluge of entries for children's short story competition as deadline reinstated

Author John Boyne has reinstalled the deadline for his children’s short story competition until 5pm today after initially calling a halt when he was deluged with 4,000 entries.

In a statement he said he had been expecting a few hundred entries but thousands had been sent to him by Monday evening and at that point “I had no choice but to close the competition to entries”.

He said since that point he had been “inundated with tweets and emails, expressing everything from ‘disappointment’ to ‘outrage’” and asked parents to “stop sending aggressive and hurtful messages to me or the people who work with me” as they were “deeply wounding”.

The author later reverted back to the original deadline and said he was “genuinely sorry about the upset over the story deadline date”.

“It was organised and conducted with good intentions but I recognise the frustration caused by closing early,” he said.

Entries can be sent to [e-mail].