KEY WEST – There’s a brand new “Papa” Hemingway in the island metropolis the place legendary writer Ernest Hemingway lived and wrote for many of the Nineteen Thirties.
White-bearded Floridian Jon Auvil received the 2022 Hemingway Look-Alike Contest, a spotlight of Key West’s annual Hemingway Days celebration that ended Sunday.
Competing for his eighth yr, the 65-year-old actual property legal professional from Dade City bested 124 different entrants after two preliminary rounds and Saturday night time’s finals.
“I think I feel most like Hemingway because of his relationship with his friends, his wife, and his children,” stated Auvil simply after his victory. “I feel very, very rich right now.”
Look-Alike Contest entrants have been judged by previous winners at Sloppy Joe’s Bar, the Duval Street saloon the place Hemingway and his cohorts often gathered.
Crowds of spectators cheered enthusiastically for his or her favorites as they paraded on stage on the bar and took turns talking. Most entrants tried to emulate the writer in his later-years “Papa” persona, with full beards, rugged demeanors, and sportsman’s apparel.
Some carried out tune parodies pleading to be named the 2022 winner. One finalist even accompanied himself on a harmonica.
As properly as look, Auvil stated he shared different traits with Ernest Hemingway together with a love of fishing. He has additionally tried his hand at writing fiction and a little bit of nonfiction.
“Of course, every man wants to write like Hemingway,” Auvil stated. “He represents a lot – romance, masculinity, sports, love of the sea, love of a woman, love of children … life.”
Hemingway Days salutes the vigorous way of life and literary legacy of the Nobel Prize-winning writer, who wrote enduring classics together with “For Whom the Bell Tolls” and “To Have and Have Not” whereas residing in Key West.
Festival occasions included an offbeat “Running of the Bulls,” the three-day Key West Marlin Tournament, and the conclusion of the Lorian Hemingway Short Story Competition directed by Ernest’s writer granddaughter.
