The International Imitation Hemingway Competition, also known as the Bad Hemingway Contest, was an annual writing competition begun in

Century City Century City is a 176-acre (71.2 ha) neighborhood and business district in Los Angeles, California, United States. Located on the Westside to the south of Santa Monica Boulevard around 10 miles (16 km) west of downtown Los Angeles, Cent ...

, 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'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

, 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. Known for an economical, understated style that influenced later 20th-century writers, he has been romanticized fo ...

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 The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper in the U.S. and the large ...

''. 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,

Ray Bradbury Ray Douglas Bradbury ( ; August 22, 1920June 5, 2012) was an American author and screenwriter. One of the most celebrated 20th-century American writers, he worked in a variety of genres, including fantasy, science fiction, Horror fiction, horr ...

, Barnaby Conrad,

George Plimpton George Ames Plimpton (March 18, 1927 – September 25, 2003) was an American writer. He is known for his sports writing and for helping to found ''The Paris Review'', as well as his patrician demeanor and accent. He was known for " participat ...

, Bernice Kert, Jack Hemingway, A. Scott Berg, and

Joseph Wambaugh Joseph Aloysius Wambaugh Jr. (January 22, 1937 – February 28, 2025) was an American writer known for his fictional and nonfictional accounts of police work in the United States. Many of his novels are set in Los Angeles and its surroundings an ...

. In the late 1970s, seeking to promote Harry's Bar & American Grill in

, 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 magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...

'' 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 columnist, column of local goings-on and insider gossip, social and political happenings, and offbeat puns and anecdotes—"A continuo ...

Lawrence Ferlinghetti Lawrence Monsanto Ferlinghetti (March 24, 1919 – February 22, 2021) was an American poet, painter, social activist, and co-founder of City Lights Booksellers & Publishers. An author of poetry, translations, fiction, theatre, art criticism, and ...

and Cyra McFadden as judges.Tellam (2009)
Case History – Harry's Bar & American Grill "11th Annual International Hemingway Contest"
Tellam Corporate website. Retrieved June 15, 2010. In 1988, after 11 years of contests, Spectrum Foods Inc., the new owners of Harry's in Los Angeles, ended their sponsorship of the contest because of escalating costs. At this time literary organization PEN Center West took over sponsorship.

American Airlines American Airlines, Inc. is a major airlines of the United States, major airline in the United States headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, within the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, and is the Largest airlines in the world, largest airline in the ...

' 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. is a Major airlines of the United States, major airline in the United States headquartered in Chicago, Chicago, Illinois that operates an extensive domestic and international route network across the United States and six ...

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 Elwyn Brooks White (July 11, 1899 – October 1, 1985) was an American writer. He was the author of several highly popular books for children, including ''Stuart Little'' (1945), ''Charlotte's Web'' (1952), and '' The Trumpet of the Swan'' ...

Raymond Chandler Raymond Thornton Chandler (July 23, 1888 – March 26, 1959) was an American-British novelist and screenwriter. In 1932, at the age of forty-four, Chandler became a detective fiction writer after losing his job as an oil company executive durin ...

, F. Scott Fitzgerald and

.The Best of Bad Hemingway Volume 2: More Choice Entries. Harry's Bar & American Grill. Harvest Books, 1991. . Retrieved March 7, 2010.

References

External links

1986 International Imitation Hemingway Award Winner
"The Snooze of Kilimanjaro", Mark Silber.
1992 International Imitation Hemingway Award Winner
"Big Too-Hardened Liver", Ken Bash

"Across the Suburbs and into the Express Lane", Scott Stavrou. {{Ernest Hemingway, state=collapsed Literary festivals in the United States Ernest Hemingway Writing contests Ironic and humorous awards Professional humor Humorous literary awards