Let’s get the bad news out of the way first: The Ann Arbor Book Festival, like everybody else, is taking a beating in this recession. There will be no literary scavenger hunt, no celebrity spelling bee and, I had to reluctantly concede after two thorough readings of the schedule, no street fair.

Some goodies at a previous edition of the Ann Arbor Book Festival.

It’s hard to be surprised; a glance at Shaman Drum’s empty storefront or the blaring headlines about Borders’ financial troubles are enough to remind us that the publishing industry’s woes have made it into even our seriously booky city. The festival’s website reflects a precipitous drop from 53 sponsors last year to just 16 in 2010, and executive director Kathy Robenalt is frank about the fact that one of the options on the table was to cancel it altogether. But the board was unwilling to give up on the 7th installment of this celebration of reading and writing, so it has opted instead to retreat and regroup.

“We looked at what we’ve done in the past, what we do that’s successful and what we felt we could handle with having limited funds, and decided to do a few of the things that do bring in some revenue and that also are the most popular things,” said Robenalt. That boiled down to 4 events: an all-ages poetry night called Literama! at the Neutral Zone on Friday, and then Breakfast with the Authors, the Writers Conference and an Authors Forum on Saturday.

Which brings us to the good news: the writers themselves. According to Robenalt, organizers took this opportunity to focus on putting together the strongest lineup possible, “and we’re really excited about all the presenters.” On Friday night, which “is full of poetry for all ages,” the Neutral Zone will host headlining poets Aracelis Girmay, author of the collection “Teeth,” and Rachel McKibbens, the 2009 Women’s Individual Poetry Slam Champion and self-described "ex-punk rock chola with five children." The evening will start out with poetry from local kids and slide toward edgier territory as the evening goes on, featuring high school, college and adult poets in an inter-generational slam.

That will also be when the festival presents its annual Leaders in Literary Arts, or LILA, awards, and this year there will be two. The Family Book Club earns recognition for its work distributing books to at-risk mothers and Head Start programs, bringing storytimes to low-income neighborhoods and recording books read by incarcerated parents to keep them in closer contact with their children. And Nicola’s Books owner Nicola Rooney will be honored for her long service on the board of Washtenaw Literacy and her six years on the Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti Reads screening committee, in addition to her contribution of one of Michigan’s largest independent bookstores to our community. Tickets to Literama! are $5 at the door.

The Author Breakfast is an event that Robenalt says she particularly looks forward to, describing it as “very fun.” This chance to break your fast with a real, live writer presents Michigan Radio host, children’s book author and festival fan Charity Nebbe as its mistress of ceremonies. “The first time I participated, I was really blown away by the diversity of writers that came from all over the country — it’s such an interesting meeting of the minds,” said Nebbe. “It’s a rare opportunity to bring these talented people with diverse backgrounds together to really celebrate literature. (And) it’s a wonderful opportunity for writers and readers alike to geek out for a minute.”

Who will you meet? Poets Girmay and McKibbins will be joined by Ann Arbor’s Keith Taylor. Ann Pearlman’s novel “The Christmas Cookie Club” was set here in town, and Brenda Bentley’s “Riverwalks Ann Arbor” is a nonfiction celebration of local bipedal transit. Michael Byers and Vasugi Ganeshananthan both teach writing at the University of Michigan and have published a novel apiece. And Ypsilanti High senior Katie Mattie is working on the second of a 4-book series that’s already gained an agent.

The event costs $20, and Robenalt points out that the food is from Zingerman’s and there will also be free books. “So that’s a pretty good deal,” she said, adding that since the Saturday events take place in the Hatcher Library and Mason Hall, they’re centrally located and easy to find. Anyone attending the writer’s conference gets breakfast for half-price, making it an even better bargain. “My hope is that (attendees) see that and think, ‘Well, I gotta have breakfast anyway…’” she laughed. “It does have a nice sort of hometown feel to it because we do have a couple of our guest authors there and also some folks in the community who are just doing what they do. And we’d like to give some recognition for that.”

Robenalt says that the community verdict on another of the events is clear: “For the writer’s conference, the feedback we’ve always gotten is that we have to keep doing this, because there just aren’t enough events like it around.” As always, the $100 admission gets you coffee, lunch from Zingerman’s and a full day of workshops led by local and national writers, covering topics that range from a “Crash Course for Aspiring Writers” through “Methods of Vision and (Re)Vision” to “YA Beyond Vampires.” There have been a couple of tweaks to the scheduling: it’s been moved to a Saturday this year so that attendees don’t have to take the day off work (and since a possible conflict with the street fair isn’t an issue), and the 10 a.m. start time is a little later to accommodate folks who are driving in from other towns.

The workshop schedule itself is also slightly altered, finishing off the day not with a final set of smaller-group sessions but with a conference-wide discussion titled “I've Finished my Book (Article, Essay, Etc.): Now What Do I Do?” Said Robenalt, “There are always a lot of people who want to know about the publishing process, and we usually have an agent or a publisher that you could sign up for. But that means choosing between that and something else, so we decided to bring everybody over to the space where we’re going to have lunch and end the day with this session that everyone can go to. And it should be a really interesting discussion too, because people are getting published in different ways and because the publishing process is changing - it’s not the traditional ‘gotta go through New York’ thing. So that should hopefully be informative.”

All attendees are encouraged to stick around afterward for the Author’s Forum, a free event that invites the rest of the community in for “American Salvage: A Conversation with Bonnie Jo Campbell and Lolita Hernandez.” Campbell is a Michigan writer whose “American Salvage” has “just caught the attention of people,” explained Robenalt, noting that it was a finalist for the 2009 National Book Award. In it, publisher Wayne State University Press says Campbell’s Michigan-based characters “know how to fix cars and washing machines, how to shoot and clean game, and how to cook up methamphetamine, but they have not figured out how to prosper in the 21st century.” Robenalt continued, “She’s a short story writer and sort of edgy, but I think very real, and a lot of people are reading (the book) and commenting on it. We’re very happy she can come because she’s in great demand after the National Book Award. She’s being interviewed by Lolita Hernandez, who writes in kind of the same vein. That should be interesting, because she has a lot to say about the state the state.”

If you’re more into libraries than writing, the Fellowship of American Bibliophilic Societies Annual Symposium presents a free panel discussion on Saturday morning at the Gerald R. Ford Museum. It brings together Ford Library and Museum director Elaine Didier, U-M dean of libraries Paul Courant, U-M Clements Library director J. Kevin Graffagnino and Ann Arbor District Library director Josie Parker, Director, Ann Arbor District Library to discuss the “Expansion of Knowledge in the 21st Century Library.” Although it's not officially part of the Book Festival, Robenalt explained that a former board member was instrumental in getting the schedules of the two events to coincide.

What will it take for this year’s installment of the festival to be the kind of success that helps put the event back on its feet? “I think the biggest thing is to just maintain a position on the community’s consciousness,” said Robenalt. So if you’ve thought about attending one of the Festival’s events but hadn’t made it out yet, this year could prove an important chance to make your support count. They have also received $5,000 toward a matching campaign, which Robenalt reported is yielding some response. But more is always welcome, and she encourages anyone who can to make a donation through their website. “We try really hard to make this accessible and affordable. …. The bottom line would be to get as many people there as possible. We need the community support. The matching campaign is pretty critical for us.”

The Seventh Annual Ann Arbor Book Festival takes place Friday, May 14 and Saturday, May 15.

Leah DuMouchel is a free-lance writer who covers books for AnnArbor.com.