Photo: Kingdom of Navarre
If you sport a bushy white beard, have a penchant for turtlenecks or khaki safari garb, and feel at home in dive bars or around large, unpredictable animals, you may have a shot at a free trip to Spain for the first International Ernest Hemingway Look-alike and Impersonators Contest. Anyone with a physical resemblance to the writer can enter by submitting two recent photos (half- and full-body) or a short video by noon on Monday, June 15 (that’s noon in Spain, or 6 a.m. for folks on the East Coast of the United States). If selected, participants will be invited to Pamplona, July 2 to 10 (with all travel and lodging costs gratis) to vie against other Hemingway impersonators for the grand prize of $2,000 and a return trip for two to Navarre’s Hemingway Route. The contest is being held to recognize the 50th anniversary of the Nobel Prize-winning author’s last trip to the region, a setting used in some of his best-known works.
If Spain seems as distant a destination as the snows of Kilimanjaro, domestic Papa doppelgangers can head to Key West, which will host its annual Hemingway Days July 21 to 25. Here, in addition to book readings and a deep-sea marlin fishing tournament, the competitive Papa look-alike contest at Sloppy Joe’s bar involves arm-wrestling and a mock bull-run through the streets.
It seems a shame that Hemingway has such a lock on the literary look-alike market, when there are so many other writers (with beards and without) who have notable connections to great vacation destinations. Here is a short list of some other impersonator competitions I would like to see arranged:
A long beard and a dour look will get you into the Herman Melville look-alike contest, to be held aboard a whale-watching boat leaving from Nantucket.
Break out your bonnet and pelisse and head to Hampshire, England for a Jane Austen look-alike competition. Bonus points for those who bring zombie-slaying gear a la Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Winners will have a lead role in a double-wedding ceremony.
A button-down shirt, spectacles and knapsack slung over one shoulder are all you’ll need to enter the Rick Steves look-alike showdown, to take place in a sleeper car somewhere between Italy and France. Grand prize is a lifetime Eurail Pass.
Any other literary figures you’d like to see in the flesh? Let us hear it in the comments.
