AADL celebrates books and authors with annual Printmaking Festival and A2 Community Bookfest

This story is part of a series about arts and culture in Washtenaw County. It is made possible by the Ann Arbor Art Center, Destination Ann Arbor, the University of Michigan Arts Initiative, and the University Musical Society. 

Next weekend, the Ann Arbor District Library (AADL) celebrates books and authors in all their many forms with two free events at the downtown branch, 343 S. 5th Ave in Ann Arbor.

The Printmaking Festival will be held Saturday, Nov. 14, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and the A2 Community Bookfest on Sunday, Nov. 15, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Both events will feature talks, hands-on activities, and more than 60 vendors each in the library’s lobby.

Those vendors are “all equally awesome!” insists Richard Retyi, communications and marketing manager for the AADL.

The Printmaking Festival “carries on the tradition of a past festival we hosted called Wayzgoose, which was held in 2018 and 2019,” Retyi says.

“Historically, a Wayzgoose was an annual celebration put on by the head printer for the workers to mark the end of the summer and the start of the season of working by candlelight.”

The Printmaking Festival takes a slightly broader approach than ADDL’s Wayzgoose, and will offer drop-in printmaking demos from the Ypsilanti-based Rhizome Studio and CopyCat Community Print Studio, from Detroit, and hands-on printmaking sessions for attendees. No prior experience is necessary and the event is open to families and children.

Dozens of vendors stationed in the lobby will sell original letterpress works, screen and block printing art, linocuts, illustrations, acrylics, risograph works, and woodcuts, among other traditional printing forms.

Meanwhile, attendees can learn more from “a trio of amazing printmakers,” Retyi says: Elaisha Hilliard, from Detroit; Delia Touché, of the Sisseton Wahpeton Dakota and Assiniboine; and Melih Meric, who was born in Turkey and now lives in Akron, Ohio.

The artists will “[talk] about their creative process and [explore] their creativity within the medium,” Retyi says.

The following day, the AADL will turn things over to the A2 Community Bookfest, formerly known as the Kerrytown BookFest.

Retyi calls the event “a celebration of authors and writers, featuring sessions about publishing, a lobby full of authors, booksellers, publishers, and crafters, and our headliner, bestselling author Katie Kitamura,” the author of acclaimed novels Audition, A Separation, and Intimacies, among other works.

Attendees might be interested to learn that Kitamura was originally scheduled to headline the previous year’s event but was forced to cancel after her novel Audition was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. (The book was also a finalist for the 2026 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.)

“Kitamura will talk about fiction and identity, delving into language, the immigrant experience, and finding her voice as a writer,” Retyi says.

Kitamura’s session will run from 10:30 – 11:30 a.m. on Nov. 15.

Other sessions include a workshop on writing picture books, a talk on demystifying author/editor relationships, and a panel on self-publishing with a variety of self-published authors offering tips.

Vendors will include authors, booksellers, publishers, artisans, and local publications and writing organizations, including Booksweet, Dzanc House, Crazy Wisdom Journal, Groundcover News, the Ann Arbor Observer, Literati Bookstore, and many others.

For those interested in a hands-on experience, attendees can drop by between 12 and 2 p.m. to make decorative garlands from the pages of old books.

Those who’ve attended the annual events in the past “will have a similar experience,” Retyi says—the primary vision hasn’t changed—“but with a lot of new vendors, brand new speakers, and different hands-on activities.”