Kerrytown BookFest celebrates all things books
Molly McGuire
Daily Arts WriterSeptember 9th, 2009
The finest members of the Ann Arbor literati will be hitting the brick and cobblestone streets of Kerrytown this Sunday for a day filled with books, high-powered discussion, a touch of mystery and some delicious and belletristic confections. It’s the seventh annual Kerrytown BookFest and, as always, there’s a frenzy of book-related activities planned for the day. The activities, which begin at 11 a.m., are centered at the Farmers’ Market.
Although the program for the book festival changes every year, its focus is always the same: the celebration of reading and Ann Arbor’s thriving book culture. In addition to all the authors and distinguished speakers who flock to the BookFest, at the heart of the festival are those who actually create books. The likes of bookbinders, papermakers, letterpress printers and book artists will be there, some of them showcasing their craft for visitors.
“There’s a big focus on the book arts,” President of the Bookfest Board Robin Agnew, who owns Aunt Agatha’s Mystery Bookshop downtown, said. “It’s a really unusual additional focus for our event.”
"Culinary Michigan" is this year's theme, and events on the topic take up about half of the programming. Drawing in local food connoisseurs along with gastronomes from out of town, the BookFest will have panels headed by culinary celebrities. Take for instance Jane and Michael Stern, the “Roadfood” adventurers from National Public Radio’s “The Splendid Table.” They’ll be participating in a panel called “Local Foods in the World and Global Foods in Michigan” along with Ari Weinzweig, co-owner of Zingerman’s, and Jan Longone, the University of Michigan Clements Library culinary historian. And this panel is only one of many — the rest of the topics are as varied as food blogging in “Eating Online” and gastronomic whodunits in “Mysteries to Cook By.”
The Sterns also have a cake job set up judging the Edible Book Contest. The rules to this contest — which unites food and literature — are simple. Turn your favorite novel, author or character into something edible. Puns are encouraged. For example, “if you had a beer mug with a hot dog in it, that would be Frankenstein,” Agnew explained. The hottest contenders will duke it out for such awards as Most Book-Like, Pun-Intended and Best in Show.
But it’s not all about food at this year’s BookFest. Once they’re full, visitors will find the rest of the programming offers a wide variety of guests and activities. Mystery buffs are lucky this year — headlining is Jeffery Deaver, bestselling writer and author of “The Bone Collector,” who is set to speak at 4 p.m. Continuing along the same hardboiled lines, there will be a true crime panel featuring writers Mardi Link, Patrick Brode, Steve Miller and Andrea Billups. Moderated by writer and blogger Laura James, the panel will focus on true crime writing, both contemporary and historical.
There are still dozens of things to do for those ambivalent about mystery solving. Aspiring journalists and newspaper enthusiasts biting their nails over folding publications might want to check out “The Future of Print Journalism.” Speakers from the Ann Arbor Chronicle, Annarbor.com, The Ann Arbor Observer, The Detroit News and USA Today will address the seemingly grim outlook and share their predictions on what’s to come. There will also be a panel discussion on “Counterculture and Music of the ’60s,” where a biography of Ann Arbor native Bob Seger is one of the featured books.
In addition, Michigan Notable Book Award Winner Mary Ellen Geist will speak about her winning book, “Measure of the Heart,” which details the relationship between a father with Alzheimer’s disease and his daughter. Lastly, students might recognize some University professors in the crowd, as husband and wife writing teams Michael Byers and Susan Hutton, as well as Peter Ho Davies and Lynne Raughley, talk about their work and their experience as literary couples.
For a more hands-on approach, there’s the Hollander’s Outdoor Mini Workshops. Visitors can make collages, recipe books and even papyrus. It’s not only for adults, though — there’s an entire children’s tent devoted to crafts for kids like paper making and paper marbling. And of course there’s no children’s tent without storytime. Authors Heather O’Neal and John Perry will come by for a reading, and so will Mother Goose.
In recent years, the BookFest has been wildly popular, with turnouts of around 4,000 visitors and more than 100 exhibitors. With the well-known headliners this year, the seventh annual BookFest promises to match that and more. And it makes sense: Ann Arbor, with over 30 bookstores and an exciting literary community, is the perfect place for a crisp September Sunday with the best and brightest from the book world.
“It’s a really great way to expose everyone in the community to writers and to book arts, and just to a lot of things that go in Ann Arbor that people don’t know about,” Agnew said.
The Kerrytown BookFest comes but once a year. “It takes all year to plan,” Agnew explained. So take this Sunday to go see all literary Ann Arbor has to offer – mingle with all the erudite exhibitors who do so much to create everything we read, pick up a snazzy copy of a book for school and learn about true crime writing and bookbinding. You might even get a piece of cake for your trouble.
Printed from www.michigandaily.com on Fri, 10 Feb 2012 14:41:08 -0500