Hemingway Days Kicks Off In Key West
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KEY WEST -- Ernest Hemingway fans are celebrating his life in Key West this weekend, during the 35th annual Hemingway Days
Honoring the legacy of the Nobel Prize-winner who lived and wrote on the island during the 1930s, activities began Tuesday on the 116th anniversary of Ernest's birth.
Events include the famed "Papa" Hemingway Look-Alike Contest, an awards reception capping the internationally recognized Lorian Hemingway Short Story Competition, prose and poetry readings, a street fair on Key West's Duval Street, a 5k run and paddleboard race, the tongue-in-cheek "Running of the Bulls" and the Bacardi Oakheart Key West Marlin Tournament recalling Ernest's love of Florida Keys angling.
Those with a physical resemblance to Hemingway can compete in "Papa" Hemingway Look-Alike Contest. Past winners choose the new "Papa" from approximately 125 stocky, bearded hopefuls at Sloppy Joe's Bar, 201 Duval St., a watering hole frequented by the author. Preliminary rounds are scheduled at 6:30 p.m. Thursday and Friday with the final round Saturday, July 25.
The "Papas" also enliven other festival events including Saturday's infamous Running of the Bulls, held at 1 p.m. outside Sloppy Joe's with manmade bull replicas, in an offbeat salute to Hemingway's fascination with the bull ring and much safe event compared to its namesake in Pamplona, Spain.
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