The International Imitation Hemingway Competition, also known as the Bad Hemingway Contest, was an annual writing competition begun in Century City, California. Started in 1977 as a "promotional gag",Schwartz, Amy E. (August 12, 1994) Homage to Poppa and Pappy
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
, p. A27. Retrieved June 15, 2010. and held for nearly thirty years, the contest pays mock homage to
Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style—which he termed the iceberg theory—had a strong influence on 20th-century f ...
by encouraging authors to submit a 'really good page of really bad Hemingway' in a Hemingway-esque style.Smith, Jack (March 15, 1993) Wanted: One Really Good Page of Really Bad Hemingway '' LA Times''. Retrieved March 7, 2010.
Submissions have included such titles as "Big Too-Hardened Liver" (1992 winner), "The Old Man and the Flea" (2002 winner), "The Bug Count also Rises", "Across the Suburbs and Into the Express Lane at Von's" (2000 winner, Scott Stavrou) and "The Short, Happy Life of Frances' Comb."
The competition, as created, had two rules: mention Harry's Bar & Grill (the Venetian Harry's was long one of Hemingway's favorite watering holes) and be funny. First prize was round-trip tickets and dinner for two at Harry's in Florence, Italy.
In addition to the humor of the contest, there is irony in its existence, as Hemingway famously said: "The step ''up'' from writing parodies is writing on the wall above the urinal." Nevertheless, the contest had thousands of dedicated enthusiasts among writers and Hemingway fans, drawing more than 24,000 entries in its first ten years of operation. Many notable literary figures judged the contest over the years, including Digby Diehl, Jack Smith,
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,
Barnaby Conrad
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Born in San Francisco, California to an affluent family, Conrad was raised in Hillsborough. He spent a year ...
,
George Plimpton
George Ames Plimpton (March 18, 1927 – September 25, 2003) was an American writer. He is widely known for his sports writing and for helping to found ''The Paris Review'', as well as his patrician demeanor and accent. He was also known for " ...
, Bernice Kert,
Jack Hemingway
John Hadley Nicanor Hemingway (October 10, 1923 – December 1, 2000) was a Canadian-American fly fisherman, conservationist, and writer. He was the son of American novelist and Nobel Prize-laureate Ernest Hemingway.
Early life
Jack Hemingway w ...
, A. Scott Berg, and Joseph Wambaugh.
In the late 1970s, seeking to promote Harry's Bar & American Grill in Century City, California, bar owners Jerry Magnin and Larry Mindel consulted advertising executive Paul Keye, who suggested the contest to capitalize on Hemingway's literary references to "Harry's". The contest announcement in ''
The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'' magazine stated, "One very good page of very bad Hemingway will send you and a friend to Italy for dinner." For the 11th Annual Contest, to promote the contest's move from (closing) Century City to the San Francisco Harry's, PR firm Tellem Worldwide recruited noted San Francisco authors
Herb Caen
Herbert Eugene Caen (; April 3, 1916 February 1, 1997) was a San Francisco humorist and journalist whose daily column of local goings-on and insider gossip, social and political happenings, and offbeat puns and anecdotes—"A continuous love le ...
,
Lawrence Ferlinghetti
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American Airlines
American Airlines is a major airlines of the United States, major US-based airline headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, within the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. It is the Largest airlines in the world, largest airline in the world when measured ...
' in-flight magazine ''American Way'' began printing contest-winning entries, and continued the grand prize of a flight to Italy. In 2000
United Airlines
United Airlines, Inc. (commonly referred to as United), is a major American airline headquartered at the Willis Tower in Chicago, Illinois.
assumed sponsorship of the contest, publishing winning entries in their in-flight and online ''Hemispheres Magazine''. Announcement of contest sponsorship. United Airlines' support continued until the 2005 contest, following which the competition ended. The final winning parody was entitled "Da Movable Code."
Hemingway's spare writing style had often been imitated prior to the contest. Since then, two anthologies of Imitation Hemingway have been published (''The Best of Bad Hemingway'', Volumes I & II) and include contest winners as well as satires of Hemingway written by
E. B. White
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and
George Plimpton
George Ames Plimpton (March 18, 1927 – September 25, 2003) was an American writer. He is widely known for his sports writing and for helping to found ''The Paris Review'', as well as his patrician demeanor and accent. He was also known for " ...
.The Best of Bad Hemingway Volume 2: More Choice Entries. Harry's Bar & American Grill. Harvest Books, 1991. . Retrieved March 7, 2010.