The Hemingway Days Festival is a weeklong celebration of Ernest Hemingway the man, the writer, and the lover of life. So it shouldn't be surprising that the week of July 15-20th is going to be a full one...hundreds of six-toed cats and a host of stocky bearded men will be on hand as Key West celebrates one of its most famous residents with its 23rd Annual Hemingway Days Festival!

It was while living in Key West that Hemingway gained the nickname "Papa." "Papa" Hemingway lived in a Spanish Colonial home on Whitehead Street during the 1930's and wrote much of "For Whom the Bell Tolls," To Have and Have Not" and "The Snows of Kilimanjaro from the United States' southernmost town.

His life was filled with more adventure, travel, and work than seems possible. It's this spirit that the Hemingway Days Festival celebrates and emulates with the Key West Marlin Tournament, Saltwater Fishing Clinic and the Hemingway Look-Alike Contest at Sloppy Joe's. There's also a Writers Workshop & Conference, a Street Fair, Storytelling Competition, and a 'running of the bulls'- well, a sort of running of the bulls.

Oh, and there may be a bit of drinking going on. Out of respect for 'Papa' Hemingway, you understand.

As much as anything though, it's how Hemingway lived while in Key West that is most vivid. Waking early to write while the day was still cool, his afternoons were given over to exploring Key West and meeting the people who lived here - and to deep-sea fishing.