Hemingway Days

July 21 is the birthday of Ernest Hemingway, and in celebration of that, today kicks off "Hemingway Days" in Key West, Florida, until July 26. The 35th annual festival features a Hemingway look-alike contest, an exhibit of memorabilia related to the author, a faux running of the bulls, and both a fishing tournament and a writing competition. A full schedule of this year's events is here.

Hemingway spent about a decade in the tropical Florida locale, from 1928 until 1939, and it inspired the setting for his 1937 novel, To Have and Have Not. His former residence at 907 Whitehead St. is now the Ernest Hemingway Home & Museum, a National Historic Landmark, open to the public year-round.

Image: Wally Collins, middle, is congratulated after beating 130 other men to be crowned the 2014 "Papa" Hemingway Look-Alike Contest winner late Saturday, July 19, 2014, at Sloppy Joe's Bar in Key West, Florida. (Andy Newman/Florida Keys News Bureau/HO)