Started in 2003, the Kerrytown BookFest is an event celebrating those who create books and those who read them. The primary goal is to highlight the area’s rich heritage in the book and printing arts while showcasing local and regional individuals, businesses, and organizations. Since 2003 we have been growing, sharing, and discovering more and more about the rich book culture in our region.
The BookFest features authors, storytellers, publishers bookbinders, book artists, book illustrators, poets, letterpress printers, wood engravers, calligraphers, papermakers, librarians, teachers, publishers, new, used, and antiquarian booksellers and many others associated with books and their diverse forms, structure, and content.
More information at kerrytownbookfest.org
This year’s theme is “Travels with Books”.
A special feature this year is our third annual Writer in Residence, R.J. Fox. This teacher and author will critique manuscripts submitted ahead of time the day of the festival. Contact Hart Johnson, hartjohnson23@gmail.com, to reserve a slot.
Main Tent
10:30 – 11 a.m. 9th Annual Community Book Award Presentation to Washtenaw Literacy. Director Amy Goodman will accept the award, presented by board member Dallas Moore. Free coffee and donuts will be served in the Main Tent to help celebrate Washtenaw Literacy and kick off the day.
11:00 a.m.- Noon Under the Radar Michigan’s Tom Daldin talks about Michigan’s undiscovered gems.
12:15 – 1:15 p.m. The Quest for Identity Writers Desiree Cooper (Know the Mother), Kelly Fordon (Garden of the Blind), and Andrew Mozina (Contrary Motion) discuss their work with moderator and author Donald Lystra(Something That Feels Like Truth).
1:30 – 2:30 p.m. A Mysterious Sense of Place Mystery writers William Kent Krueger (Manitou Canyon), Hank Phillippi Ryan (What You See) andPatricia Abbott (Shot in Detroit) discuss the sense of place in their novels with author and moderator Carrie Smith (Silent City).
2:45 – 3:45 p.m. Travel through Time with author B.A. Shapiro, who discusses her novels The Art Forger and The Muralist with art historianEllen Longsworth.
4 p.m. Travel North with John Smolens as he discusses his writing and his latest novel Wolf’s Mouth with writer and moderator Benjamin Busch (Dust to Dust).
Kerrytown Concert House
11:00 a.m. – Noon Writing for Hire Join writers Casey Daniels (Irish Stewed) and Vicky Delany (Reading up a Storm), as they discuss the many ways to make a living writing. Both of them have written books “for hire” from TV adaptations to cozy mysteries to flashcards to Goosebumpsinstallments. They’ll discuss the state of publishing today with writer and moderator Barbara Gregorich (Guide to Writing the Mystery Novel: Lots of Examples, Plus Dead Bodies).
12:15 – 1:15 p.m. Stride’s Duluth Thriller writer Brian Freeman illustrates with photos taken on photo safari in Duluth, Minnesota, how he uses the setting to inform his Jonathan Stride novels. He’ll read a passage from one of them to show how his setting influences his writing.
1:30 – 2:30 p.m. Eating Wildly with Ava Chin, who discusses her book on urban foraging with bookseller and moderator Rachel Pastiva, the manager of Crazy Wisdom.
2:45 – 3:45 p.m. Travel the Lakes with Loreen Niewenhuis, who has walked around the entire Great Lakes. She’ll be interviewed by authorMaureen Dunphy (Great Lakes Island Escapes).
4 p.m. The ABCs of Washtenaw Literacy, an informative tour of the agency’s highly effective programs including a video and a presentation from learners.
Children’s Tent
11-11:45 a.m. the beloved Mother Goose shares nursery rhymes with the littlest BookFest visitors
11:45 a.m. – 12:15 p.m. Shanda Trent reads her new book Giddy-Up, Buckaroos
12:15 – 1 p.m. Writer Kristen Remenar and illustrator Matt Faulkner read their latest collaboration Groundhog’s Dilemma
1 – 1:45 p.m. author Kelly DiPuccio shares How to Potty Train Your Dragon
2 – 3;30 p.m. Storytellers Laura Pershin Raynor and Kayla Coughlinentertain listeners of all ages & share a craft.
3:30 – 5 p.m. writer & illustrator Ruth McNally Barshaw (Ellie McDoodle)leads a drawing workshop – “How to make a Lion from a 5″
Writer in Residence R.J. Fox, ongoing through the day. Mr. Fox will critique the first twenty pages of your manuscript. For information and to reserve a slot, contact Hart Johnson at hartjohnson23@gmail.com.
The Edible Book Contest is open to anyone; entries can be dropped off beginning at 9:30 a.m. the day of the bookfest. More details to come.
Random House, Penguin, Macmillan, and Harper Collins publishing house representatives discuss their best new titles from late summer and upcoming releases.
The Hopwood Awards Program celebates summer awardees with a reception at 3:15 and awards at 4:10. Three RC students won summer awards:
Literati is thrilled to welcome our friends at harlequin creature back to the store for the launch of their latest, greatest issues.
About the journal: 2016 marks five years of harlequin creature, and to celebrate, we’re launching a special double issue. please join us for the launch of issues 8/9 with an evening of readings. issue 8, “not a metaphor,” was curated by a group of guest editors from across the country, including JP Howard & Casey Rocheteau (poetry), Ginger Buswell (prose), & Alisha Wessler (art). it includes the poetry of Tara Betts, Destiny O. Birdsong, Amber Flame, Micaela Foley, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Amanda Johnston, Stacey Knecht, and Pamela L. Laskin, prose by Emily Hunt and Meg Whiteford, and art by Matt Neff. cover design by Kayla Romberger. issue 9, “sitting between chairs,” is dedicated to translation and was shaped by guest editors Kristin Dickinson, Emily Goedde, and Anne Posten, and features translations from a wide range of languages, including serbian, welsh, portugese, ukrainian and hungarian.
RC Creative Writing alumnus Nicholas Petrie will be Writer in Residence at the RC October 12-13, and will read in Benzinger Library on the 13th. He is the author of The Drifter (2016) and Burning Bright (January 2017). Nicholas won a Hopwood for short fiction in 1991; he received his MFA in fiction from the University of Washington. His story “At the Laundromat” won the 2006 Short Story Contest in the The Seattle Review, a national literary journal. A husband and father, he runs a home-inspection business in Milwaukee.
RC Alumna Anna Clark (2003) speaks on her forthcoming book, “Water’s Perfect Memory: Flint and the Poisoning of an American City”. The James H. and Jean B. Robertson Memorial Lecture Series was established by the Robertson family in 2011 to honor the first Director of the Residential College and his spouse and to provide for an annual lecture on education and the liberal arts.
The book club offers an intimate, small-group discussion with RC alumnus Rick Petrie, Tuesday, January 17 at 6 pm. We will discuss The Drifter before Nick’s reading from his newest book, Burning Bright, at 7 pm.
Limited to 12 people. To participate, you must purchase the book discussion title from Nicola’s (at a 15 percent discount) and pre-order or purchase the new release title (at a 10 percent discount).
To sign up, contact the store directly at 734-662-0600.
Nick Petrie received his MFA in fiction from the University of Washington, won a Hopwood Award for short fiction while an undergraduate at the University of Michigan Residential College, and his story At the Laundromat won the 2006 Short Story Contest in theThe Seattle Review, a national literary journal. A husband and father, he runs a home-inspection business in Milwaukee.
“Lots of characters get compared to my own Jack Reacher, but Petrie’s Peter Ash is the real deal.”–Lee Child.
In the new novel featuring war veteran Peter Ash, an action hero of the likes of Jack Reacher or Jason Bourne (Lincoln Journal-Star), Ash has a woman’s life in his hands and her mystery is stranger than he could ever imagine.
War veteran Peter Ash sought peace and quiet among the towering redwoods of northern California, but the trip isn’t quite the balm he’d hoped for. The dense forest and close fog cause his claustrophobia to buzz and spark, and then he stumbles upon a grizzly, long thought to have vanished from this part of the country. In a fight of man against bear, Peter doesn’t t favor his odds, so he makes a strategic retreat up a nearby sapling.
There, he finds something strange: a climbing rope, affixed to a distant branch above. It leads to another, and another, up through the giant tree canopy, and ending at a hanging platform. On the platform is a woman on the run. From below them come the sounds of men and gunshots.
Just days ago, investigative journalist June Cassidy escaped a kidnapping by the men who are still on her trail. She suspects they’re after something belonging to her mother, a prominent software designer who recently died in an accident. June needs time to figure out what’s going on, and help from someone with Peter’s particular set of skills.
Only one step ahead of their pursuers, Peter and June must race to unravel this peculiar mystery. What they find leads them to an eccentric recluse, a shadowy pseudo-military organization, and an extraordinary tool that may change the modern world forever.
RC Creative Writing alumna Carrie Smith joins our book club to talk about and sign her new novel Forgotten City. Everyone is welcome.
Feb. 25 & 26 (different programs). Performances for adults (Sat.) & families (Sun.) by 3 top storytellers from around the country.Bill Harley is a Massachusetts songwriter and storyteller with an off-center point of view whose stories paint vibrant and hilarious pictures of growing up, schooling, and family life. Best known locally in his guise as a pop-folk singer-songwriter, Don White is a veteran storyteller and humorist from Lynn (MA) who was a featured performer at the 2015 National Storytelling Festival. Bil Leppis a a Charleston (WV) storyteller with a flair for spinning humorously outrageous tall tales about everyday life who got his start when he won the 1990 West Virginia Liars Contest.
7:30 p.m. (Sat.) & 1 p.m. (Sun.), The Ark, 316 S. Main. Tickets $20 (Sat.) & $10 (Sun. family concert) in advance at the Michigan Union Ticket Office (mutotix.com) & theark.org, and at the door. To charge by phone, call 763-TKTS.
