KEY WEST, Fla. (AP) — Persistence paid off for a retired Tennessee banker who won the weekend’s Hemingway Look-Alike Contest on his eighth try.

Joe Maxey, 68, of Cedar Hill, triumphed during the three-round contest that concluded Saturday night at Key West’s Sloppy Joe’s Bar, a frequent hangout for Nobel Prize-winning author Ernest Hemingway when he lived and wrote on the subtropical island during the 1930s. This year’s Hemingway Days celebration marked the writer’s 120th birthday.

Maxey said he’s not a prolific angler as was Hemingway, who targeted blue marlin, sailfish and other deep-sea game fish between Key West and Cuba, but does share other traits with the author. “I love mojitos, and I love women, too,” he said.