A new bookstore will open in Detroit this July. DittoDitto, featuring new and used books, will be located at 1548 Trumbull St., a small storefront in the Corktown neighborhood.

Maia Asshaq originally co-founded DittoDitto as a small publishing and distribution house. With Andrea Farhat on board as graphic designer, the pair have been making books for a couple of years now. Asshaq also started the Detroit Art Book Fair, a small press book fair now in its second year. Detroit Art Book Fair is scheduled to be held at Trinosophes in September.

Asshaq has plenty of experience as a retailer. She previously ran the store at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, where she was tasked with ordering books. She started DittoDitto in December 2013, selling a small selection of books out of Trinosophes. The permanent location will feature books focusing on Asshaq's specialty, the arts, as well as literature and non-fiction.

The opportunity for her own storefront came out of a conversation with Wade Kergan, proprietor of Corktown's Hello Records. It was Kergan's recommendation that pushed Asshaq to pursue the location that shares the same building as Hello. It's an ideal spot, she thinks.

"I like that it's a low-key location," says Asshaq. "If you're shopping for books and records, you want a comfortable setting, somewhere to browse and hang out."

Hoping to open the first week of July, Asshaq is using June to prepare and stock the store. She'll also be hosting events every Thursday through Sunday, both introducing the shop to the neighborhood while also doing a bit of fundraising. Poetry readings, music performances, and film screenings are planned throughout the month of June. So, too, is a Bloomsday event, a marathon reading of the James Joyce novel Ulysses.

DittoDitto will be open Thursday through Sunday.

Source: Maia Asshaq, founder of DittoDitto
Writer: MJ Galbraith

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