News and Media Information
About the 2007 Kerrytown BookFest

Press Release 7 August 2007

Contact

Gene Alloway 734-669-0451
Bill Castanier 517-449-8771

Vampires, librarians, comic book artists, a fish printer and wolves will join scores of other book artists, authors, printers, chefs and exhibitors at the 5th Annual Kerrytown BookFest in Ann Arbor Sunday, September 9, 11 a.m.-5 p.m.

Gene Alloway, president of the BookFest and proprietor of Motte and Bailey Books, said the Fest is unlike any other book festival in the country since it celebrates not only those who write books, but also those who create them and help us gain access to them. The theme of this year’s BookFest is “Celebrating Libraries.”

“This year’s BookFest celebrates and honor librarians and libraries that are critical to the future of the book. Programs featuring librarians, libraries and authors who write about librarians and archivists will be featured. ”

The single day event is filled with educational programs, author panels, story-telling, hands on experiences in the art of bookmaking, paper making, paper marbling and letterpress and digital printing arts.

Gillian Ferrington of Ann Arbor, for example, will demonstrate the ancient Japanese art of fish printing and visitors will be able to create their own fish print.

Visitors will also be able to have their name set in metal type at Burkhart Enterprises by a 95 year old linotypist and will be able to make their own souvenir bookmark on an antique press.

Alloway said this year’s event also has a special focus on youth with panel discussions on the future of comic art and graphic novels, writing and illustrating adventure novels for young children, and publishing the pulpy, local literary review, “From the Pipe.”

In recognition of the importance of libraries to book reading pleasure a panel discussion called “Open Doors and Full Shelves” will feature Josie Parker, director of Ann Arbor District Library (AADL), Jan Langone, curator of American Culinary History at the Clements Library, Peggy Daub, director of the Special Collections Library at the University of Michigan and David Horrocks, director of the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library.

“I think that attendees will find it fascinating to discover what’s in these collections, which includes everything from an archive of Orson Welles to the records of Richard Cheney, an assistant to the President." Alloway said.

In addition, Huron River Press will host a panel discussion on “Bringing a Cookbook to Life” by three chefs who have published cookbooks with the Press. Eve Arnoff (Eve’s Restaurant), Isabella Nicolletti (Paesano’s) and Eric Villegas ( Restaurant Villegas, Lansing), who has his own Emmy Award winning PBS Television cooking show, Fork In the Road with Eric Villegas, will discuss what it takes to get a cookbook published.

The BookFest also will examine a variety of different literary genres including Midwest mystery noir, original voices in mystery fiction and “novelizing history”.

Noted local authors Elizabeth Kostova (The Historian) and Travis Holland (The Archivist’s Story) will join Robert Alexander (The Kitchen Boy) and Karen Harper (The Hooded Hawke) to discuss how they use historical reality to create fictional novels.

Noted memoirist, Ann Pearlman, author of Infidelity, will lead a discussion entitled, “The Agony and the Ecstasy of Memoir Writing.” Pearlman has appeared on the Oprah show to discuss her memoir.

Hollander’s School of Book and Paper Arts will host four hands-on-sessions where participants can learn about book making, calligraphy, paper engineering and letterpress printing. Participants also will learn how to make their own comic book and see how the collectible BookFest poster was designed and printed.

Alloway said the Fest has also added an unusual program this year featuring Gary Schwartz, a Detroit film artist, who will “deconstruct” discarded and found books and animate them for a short video. He demonstrates the reverse concept of constructing handmade books.

One special panel will feature four Michigan Notable Book Award winners who will discuss their vastly different genres and styles of writing from noir mystery to political biography. Featured panelists include Loren Estleman (Nicotine Kiss); David Dempsey (William G. Milliken); Steve Lehto (Death’s Door); and Keith Taylor (Guilty at the Rapture).

Mystery writers are in for a special treat as nine mystery writers will share time on two panels: one featuring original voices in mystery and the other with a focus on Midwest noir.

Three Chicago writers, Sean Chercover, Steven Sidor and Marcus Sakey, will join Detroit’s Mitchell Bartoy for a discussion on what makes “noir” noir. Mystery writers Judy Clemens, Jan Brogan, Jill Gregory, Karen Tintori and Tom Grace will be featured as original voices in the mystery genre.

MSU Comic Book Archivist Randy Scott will moderate a panel featuring Chad Sells who runs the comic workshop at the Neutral Zone, Kay Fedewa from Lansing who is a graphic novelist and artist who is completing a graphic novel with wolves as characters, Jim Ottaviani, a U-M librarian, who has written comics for 15 years and Jerzy Drozd who is a comic illustrator and a graphic novelist.
Alloway said this year’s bookfest is the most diverse in the Festival’s five year history.

“We have something for all interests and for all ages. Our program represents the vitality and diversity of the book and publishing industry.”

More than 100 exhibitors will offer books for sale, conduct demonstrations and for the first time a limited edition collector’s poster featuring ginkgo leaves is available for sale. The poster, which is a letterpress printing of 100, was executed by local book artist and printer Jim Horton in conjunction with the Greenhills School and Greenhills Press.

Sponsors of the event include: Robin and Jamie Agnew, Fine Binders, Gilt Edge, Kerrytown District Association, The Bank of Ann Arbor, the Michigan Humanities Council, WEMU, The Ann Arbor Observer, Aunt Agatha’s Mystery Bookshop, the City of Ann Arbor, Hollander’s of Kerrytown and the Kerrytown Concert House.

For more information, directions and program detail go to www.kerrytownbookfest.org