David Douglas, center, beams after winning the 2009 "Papa" Hemingway Look-Alike contest

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KEY WEST, Fla. — A 55-year-old Texan wearing the requisite white beard and sporting a sweater won an Ernest Hemingway look-alike contest — one of the highlights of a six-day annual festival honoring the late Nobel prize-winning author.

Dressed in a wool fisherman’s turtleneck sweater despite 90-degree temperatures, David Douglas of Cypress bested 139 other contenders at the “Papa” Hemingway Look-Alike Contest, staged Saturday night at Sloppy Joe’s Bar, the author’s favorite watering hole.

Douglas’ attire emulated Hemingway’s appearance in a famous 1957 photograph by Yousuf Karsh.

“It’s very possible the sweater did it,” said a perspiring Douglas of his victory. “It’s about 120 (degrees) inside the sweater, but it’s worth it.”

Douglas won the competition on his eighth attempt after originally entering on a dare.

The mechanical contractor said he shares Hemingway’s fondness for fishing and cocktails, but has no literary aspirations.

“I haven’t written any books, but I’m good writing checks and text messaging,” Douglas said.

Other Hemingway Days events included literary and theatrical presentations, a marlin tournament and a short story competition coordinated by author and Hemingway granddaughter Lorian Hemingway. The festival ends Sunday. July 21 was the 110th anniversary of Hemingway’s birth.

Judged by a panel of former look-alike winners, 30 prospective “Papas” made Saturday night’s contest finals to parade across the stage at Sloppy Joe’s. Finalists included Denis Golden of Rockport, Mass., who sang a parody of “Hello, Dolly” onstage with lyrics pleading for victory.

While living in Key West during the 1930s, Hemingway wrote some of his most famous works, including “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” “To Have and Have Not” and “Death in the Afternoon.”

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KEY WEST, Fla. — A Michigan high school teacher won the Lorian Hemingway Short Story Competition, the literary centerpiece of Key West’s annual salute to Ernest Hemingway that ends Sunday.

Gregory Loselle of Southgate earned the contest’s $1,000 first prize for “Lazarus,” chosen from 1,057 submissions from American and international writers.

The awards announcement took place Friday night at Casa Antigua, Ernest Hemingway’s first Key West residence.

The language arts and art history instructor’s story is about a priest who performs a miracle causing him to question his faith.

“It’s about unintended consequences, how the miraculous is not always considered good and the question of how you live out your life as the subject of transcendent grace,” said author Lorian Hemingway, Ernest Hemingway’s granddaughter, the competition’s director.

“Lazarus” particularly impressed the judges, Hemingway said, for the writer’s unique voice and ability to treat his subject with balance and without sentimentality.

Ernest Hemingway lived and wrote in Key West throughout the 1930s. The Hemingway Days festival honors his literary legacy and vigorous Key West lifestyle. This year is the 110th anniversary of Hemingway’s July 21 birth.

Hemingway Days’ Saturday events include an offbeat Running of the Bulls, a whimsical and safer answer to the event of the same name in Pamplona, Spain, and the final round of a Hemingway Look-Alike Contest with 140 stocky, white-bearded contestants.

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Hemingway Days festival: http://www.hemingwaydays.net

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