October 09, 2014
By Florida Sportsman Newswire
"There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed." - Ernest Hemingway
The creative muse of Bimini, which inspired writer Ernest Hemingway in the 1930s and Dr. Martin Luther King three decades later, is now calling out to writers interested in experiencing the daily ebb and flow of life on this tiny, Island in the Stream.
The historic Bimini Big Game Club Resort & Marina today announced a "Writer in Residence" program providing complimentary lodging for published writers. Lodging, in a cottage once occupied by Dr. Martin Luther King (if available), will be limited to three days-Monday through Wednesday, said Sales and Marketing Director Diana Weber.
The Writer in Residence program, available to one writer each week starting January 2015 and ending April 2015, will be culminated in the spring with a Writer's Retreat Workshop that will be taught by seasoned professionals.
"We are happy to support the arts. Bimini has long provided writers with a quiet tropical setting, yet a community rich with history and intrigue," said Weber. "We are committed to allowing writers to explore, meet new people, find new material and just experience life in a new location."
Weber said the candidates, who must have passports, are responsible for travel and most food and beverage costs. Writers should include proof of being previously published. Those interested in applying can email
artist@biggameclubbimini.com and request an application form.
Set in the midst of forever moving cobalt blue and turquoise green waters, Bimini may only be a mere 50 miles due east of Miami but this Bahamas outpost is light years distant from the hustle and bustle of South Florida.
From the Lucayan Indian word meaning "two islands", North and South Bimini along with its smaller cays, is part of the Bahamas, an archipelago of 700 islands sweeping across 500 miles of open ocean.
For generations of angling and diving enthusiasts, Bimini has been and remains the gateway to the Bahamas, a portal to adventure and experience perched at the edge of a sheer underwater cliff and the eastern edge of the mighty and mythical Gulf Stream.
Legendary angler and western novelist Zane Grey and his captain, Tommy Gifford, recluse billionaire Howard Hughes and retailing genius turned scientist/naturalist Michael Lerner heard the call of Bimini.
Ernest Hemingway was an early apostle to the Bimini experience in the 1930s, where he drank, brawled and wrote his way through several fishing seasons, traveling back and forth between home in Key West and his beloved "Island in the Stream". His creative workshop was the Compleat Angler and his characterizations came from a world populated by giant blue marlin, bluefin tuna and schools of sharks almost too large to count. With his literary acclaim and sporting prowess, Hemingway, together with countless other kindred spirits, established Bimini as the Big Game Fishing Capital of the World-home today to some 50 world record catches and counting.
In the 1960s, Dr. Martin Luther King along with his favorite Bimini bonefish guide, Ansil Saunders, would quietly boat out to the famous Bimini "Healing Hole" where Dr. King would gather inspiration and ideas for some of his most famous speeches. He worked on some of his speeches at a cottage at the Big Game Club Resort, which now carries a plaque in memory of his stay.
Bimini has always made headlines and inspired myths, starting with its mysterious Gulf Stream vortex where compasses spin wild to the much-debated Bimini Road, a series of uniquely formed underwater stone formations, which some think is a pathway to the lost Atlantis. The tiny island, after all, is part of the legendary Bermuda Triangle.
For additional information visit www.biggameclubbimini.com.
