When Lorian Hemingway judged Hemingway Days’ first short story competition from a Lower Keys cottage in 1981, there were only a few dozen entries.

Now, nearly 30 years later, the contest is a leading American literary challenge that receives 1,000-plus entries each year from emerging writers around the world. Coordinating it is a pleasure and a passion for Hemingway, critically acclaimed author of "Walk on Water,” "A World Turned Over" and "Walking into the River."

The granddaughter of legendary writer and former Key West resident Ernest Hemingway, Lorian Hemingway fell in love with the Florida Keys in the late 1960s when she was a self-described barefoot hippie girl. Though she officially lives in Seattle, she spends as much time as possible in Key West, calling it “like home to me in so many ways.”

She guides and spearheads both the contest and the literary side of Hemingway Days, which commemorates her grandfather’s writing achievements and exuberant Key West lifestyle. Equally important, Hemingway is chronicling the island’s flavor, personalities and past in a book-in-progress titled “Key West: The Pirate Heart.”

“Key West is everything that is tactile and living and having an elemental soul,” said Hemingway. “The book is the biography of this remarkable place, told through the immense character of its people and its history.”