Inspired by the log Gromov--Witten (or GW) theory of Gross--Siebert/Abramovich--Chen, we introduce a geometric notion of emph{log $J!$--holomorphic curve} relative to a simple normal crossings symplectic divisor defined by Tehrani--McLean--Zinger~(2018). Every such moduli space is characterized by a second homology class, genus and contact data. For certain almost complex structures, we show that the moduli space of stable log $J!$--holomorphic curves of any fixed type is compact and metrizable with respect to an enhancement of the Gromov topology. In the case of smooth symplectic divisors, our compactification is often smaller than the relative compactification and there is a projection map from the latter onto the former. The latter is constructed via expanded degenerations of the target. Our construction does not need any modification of (or any extra structure on) the target. Unlike the classical moduli spaces of stable maps, these log moduli spaces are often virtually singular. We describe an explicit toric model for the normal cone (ie the space of gluing parameters) to each stratum in terms of the defining combinatorial data of that stratum. In an earlier preprint, we introduced a natural set up for studying the deformation theory of log (and relative) curves and obtained a logarithmic analogue of the space of Ruan--Tian perturbations for these moduli spaces. In a forthcoming paper, we will prove a gluing theorem for smoothing log curves in the normal direction to each stratum. With some modifications to the theory of Kuranishi spaces, the latter will allow us to construct a virtual fundamental class for every such log moduli space, and define relative GW invariants without any restriction.
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