On Saturday, Oct. 6, Fiction Writers Review and the University of Michigan’s MFA program in creative writing will celebrate Michigan’s great writers and the state’s enduring literary traditions by declaring Michigan “The State of the Book.”

They will do so by co-hosting a day-long series of public events in Rackham Auditorium on the U-M campus, showcasing the state’s leading literary stars, as well as the next generation of Michigan writers.

Here's a list of events:

• A reading and presentation by elementary school writers affliated with 826michigan, in conjunction with the release of their annual "Omnibus" anthology.

• A performance poetry event starring teen participants from the Neutral Zone and InsideOut Literary Arts Project.

• A presentation on innovative publishing by editors and publishers of both traditional print ventures and online literary journals.

• A panel featuring debut authors who will discuss the path to publishing their first books.

• A discussion on “Writing Michigan(s)” with poets, essayists, and fiction writers from around the state.

• A conversation about the future of literary journalism with prominent editors and journalists.

The day’s events will conclude with a keynote conversation featuring Charles Baxter, an award-winning fiction writer and novelist (and former U-M professor), and Philip Levine, a former Poet Laureate of the United States and winner of a Pulitzer Prize for poetry.

Throughout the day there will also be a book fair, with more than a dozen presses and literary journals from across the state of Michigan.

For schedule details, visit stateofthebook.com/.

Preceding The State of the Book celebration, Fiction Writers Review and its partner organizations (826michigan, InsideOut Literary Arts Project, The Neutral Zone, The National Writers Series, and Dzanc Books) are competing in “The Great Write Off,” a three-day write-a-thon taking place Wednesday-Friday. This friendly fundraising competition will encourage each of the six organizations to bring together the most writers, to write the most pages, and to raise the most money. Think walk-a-thon, but with writing.

Each organizatio recruited writers to write on their behalf (either solo or on teams), and all funds pledged on behalf of those individuals and teams will go to their sponsoring organizations.