Florida attorney wins Ernest Hemingway lookalike contest in Key West

KEY WEST, Fla. — Call him Papa Jon.

Jon Auvil, of Dade City, won the annual Hemingway Look-Alike Contest at Sloppy Joe’s Bar in Key West on Saturday, according to The Associated Press.

The contest was the highlight of the city’s annual Hemingway Days salute to author Ernest Hemingway, which ended Sunday. The author lived in Key West for most of the 1930s, according to the news outlet.

Auvil defeated 124 other contestants for this year’s title. He was a finalist in the 2021 contest won by Zach Taylor, a 63-year-old electrical and plumbing supply company owner from Ambrose, Georgia.

Auvil, who is an attorney in Dade City, received a bachelor’s degree in business administrator management at the University of Florida and graduated from that university’s law school.

Auvil said he shares Hemingway’s passion for fishing, has written some fiction and would like to do more writing.

“Every man wants to write like Hemingway,” Auvil said.

While living in Key West, Hemingway wrote “For Whom the Bell Tolls” and “To Have and Have Not,” according to the AP.

0 of 13