Rural Southwest Michigan Gets Its First Major Literary Festival As Bookstore Owner Takes Literacy Mission to Vicksburg

VICKSBURG, MI — A new literary festival is bringing big-city literary energy to rural Southwest Michigan this April, with the first-ever Pulp & Press Lit Arts Fest arriving on April 24-25, 2026 in the Village of Vicksburg.

The two-day event features New York Times bestselling author Shelby Van Pelt, a walkable downtown Book Trail with over 30 regional authors, and hands-on workshops in poetry, illustration, and bookbinding.

For Kimm Mayer, planning committee lead and owner-operator of Vicksburg bookstore Gilbert and Ivy, the festival was inspired by a desire to shine a spotlight on literacy in rural communities.

Can we bring high-quality literary arts to a rural environment, and can we be successful with that?

That question became the anchor of the festival. While literary festivals are common in places like Detroit, Ann Arbor, and Grand Rapids, Mayer says rural Southwest Michigan doesn't always have access to literary events.

When we look at rural areas anywhere, not just Michigan, but anywhere in the country, you just find that access to these special events and opportunities to work one-on-one with authors and writers is limited

About ten miles away, the Kalamazoo Poetry Festival occurs every April during National Poetry Month and also hosts year-round events, but Pulp & Press opens the door to all literary arts, including fiction, non-fiction, illustration, and poetry.

Addressing Michigan's Reading Proficiency Gap

The festival partly responds to Michigan's ongoing literacy challenges. Michigan continues to rank near the bottom nationally for reading proficiency, with only about 24 percent of fourth-grade students reading at a proficient level.

Just last month, Governor Gretchen Whitmer said in her State of the State address that Michigan is 44th in the U.S. for fourth-grade reading proficiency, citing it as a serious problem.

In the United States, fourth grade is when students stop learning to read in class and begin reading to learn. If they are behind in reading by 4th grade, studies show, they begin to get behind in every other subject.

Pulp & Press is designed to respond to that gap by making literary experiences more accessible through direct interaction with established authors and facilitators.

Expanding Beyond Traditional Literary Arts

The festival expands on the traditional definition of literary arts by incorporating illustration, spoken word, and other creative practices where attendees are active participants.

We see literacy and the literary in many, many different art forms. And if you are going to make it accessible, you have to meet people where they are

Picking up a novel is not where everybody is. Sometimes it is a magazine. Sometimes it is a short story. For many kids right now, it is graphic novels.

The festival will honor books while also promoting visual storytelling, poetry, and interactive creative work.

Picking up a novel is not where everybody is. Sometimes it is a magazine. Sometimes it is a short story. For many kids right now, it is graphic novels

One of the programs that Mayer and Susan Kallewaard, a planning committee member, former educator in Portage Schools, and youth services librarian at Vicksburg District Library, are particularly excited about is the Book Trail.

The Book Trail: A Village-Wide Writer Walk

The Book Trail is a village-wide writer and vendor walk. Festivalgoers will move from business to business and encounter over 30 regional authors while discovering what the Village of Vicksburg has to offer.

The Book Trail is the original seed of the whole festival, a concept that later grew into something bigger

According to Mayer, each site will host several writers or organizations, giving visitors the chance to meet authors up close, get to know one another, and shop. She described the Book Trail as the original seed of the whole festival, a concept that later grew into something bigger.

She noted that the interpersonal, participatory nature of the festival is especially meaningful for young people.

The opportunity to meet one on one with authors is so inspiring for young children. Because they don't know that they are authors. They don't know they can tell their stories

For Kallewaard, the true impact of Pulp & Press lies in helping kids see authors as real people whose work revolves around imagination, discipline, and their own voices.

Keynote: Shelby Van Pelt

Shelby Van Pelt, author of Remarkably Bright Creatures, will open the festival on Friday, April 24, at the Vicksburg Performing Arts Center.

Van Pelt's best-selling novel has been adapted into a film starring Alfred Molina, Sally Field, and Lewis Pullman, which premieres on Netflix May 9, just two weeks after Pulp & Press.

Mayer said the festival organizers searched for a writer with name recognition, cross-generational appeal, and work that would not feel off-limits to young people.

We see this as an opportunity to bring what usually is restricted only to urban areas like Ann Arbor or Detroit or Grand Rapids, and bring it to a rural setting, which, quite honestly, is where literacy is at its lowest

That's where there is the biggest challenge to get resources to be able to provide quality programming.

Organizing Partners

The festival's organizing partners include:

  • Gilbert and Ivy Booksellers
  • Vicksburg Arts
  • Prairie Ronde Artist Residency and gallery
  • Vicksburg District Library
  • Gilbert and Ivy bookstore
  • The Vicksburg Area Chamber of Commerce
  • The Village of Vicksburg, which is serving as the host and financial sponsor in the inaugural year

The group first floated the idea of putting on a small festival in July of 2025, when they decided the collective group possessed the skill set to make something happen on a small scale that would have regional appeal.

It's grown a bit to be bigger than any of us anticipated

Workshops and Free Programming

The festival features several workshops including:

  • Japanese stab binding workshop hosted in partnership with Kalamazoo Book Arts Center
  • Illustration workshop with Its Happy Bunny author/illustrator Jim Benton
  • Cultural heritage poem-writing workshop led by poet, author, WMU professor and Black Indian memoirist Shonda Buchanan

Many parts of the two-day event are also free to the public, including:

  • A gallery exhibition of artists and illustrators
  • A program in which author/illustrator Ruth McNally Barshaw and youth attendees will write and illustrate a children's book at Vicksburg Library
  • Demonstrations of historic printing presses at Vicksburg Historical Village
  • The Book Trail, which features 30 authors peppered throughout nine locations in downtown Vicksburg

Local businesses are opening their doors, and we are going to be placing authors in their businesses to give them access to the public, and the public access to them.

From farthest point to farthest point is only half a mile, which is the brilliance of Vicksburg that you can have a festival and you can walk from end to end in 10 minutes.

A Return to Roots

The festival is a nod to Vicksburg's and the region's papermaking roots. Festivalgoers will have the opportunity to learn how historical printing presses operated.

The festival's mission, said Mayer, is to bring a high-quality literary festival, supporting the literary arts, supporting and fostering literacy, to a rural area where it is needed.

We see this as an opportunity to bring what usually is restricted only to urban areas like Ann Arbor or Detroit or Grand Rapids, and bring it to a rural setting, which, quite honestly, is where literacy is at its lowest

That's where there is the biggest challenge to get resources to be able to provide quality programming.