Rosemary Beach Foundation is hosting an evening of conversation with John Hemingway — grandson of Ernest Hemingway — at Rosemary Beach’s Town Hall on Thursday, October 10th.A wine reception will be held at 6:00 pm, and the lecture and conversation will commence at 6:45 pm, followed by a book-signing.
Tickets are $100 for individuals or $150 per couple.
An American writer and translator, John lives in Montreal, Canada. His memoir, Strange Tribe, describes the complex love/hate relationship and striking similarities between his father, Dr. Gregory Hemingway, and grandfather, Nobel Laureate Ernest Hemingway.
As revealed in Strange Tribe, Hemingway spent his early years in Miami before being shuffled from one home to another and dealing with his family’s dysfunction. He eventually went on to study history and Italian at U.C.L.A. After graduating, he moved to Italy as a way of distancing himself from his troubled family background.
One of the unresolved questions for him was how his father, a cross-dresser and transsexual, could fit with the image that the public has of his grandfather as an icon of male masculinity. The macho myth surrounding his grandfather was in fact only half the story.
In 2011, Hemingway received the VIII Kukuxumusu Guiri del Año Award in Key West. This award is bestowed each year on a foreigner in acknowledgement of his passion and fervor for Sanfermin fiestas and his connection with the popular fiestas in Iruñea/Pamplona.
Some of his fiction has appeared in U.S. publications including Saturday Evening Post, Collier’s magazine, Provincetown Arts and Chum Literary magazine, and his articles have also appeared in Italian newspapers such as l’Unità and Libero.
“We are excited to have John visit and speak in our town,” said Rosemary Beach Foundation Vice President Reynolds Henderson. “He has never visited the Panhandle of Florida, and we look forward to hosting him in Rosemary Beach.”
