This year’s Dogwood Fine Arts Festival is shaping up to be larger than ever, with four artists headlining the schedule of events.

Among this year’s featured acts will be author Elizabeth Strout, dance performing group Dancing Wheels, storyteller Kim Weitkamp and rock musician Mitch Ryder. This is double the number of featured artists the festival normally showcases each year, said festival secretary Bobbie-Jo Hartline.

“There’s going to be something for everybody this year,” Hartline said. “You can work all day at your job or at school and have a great party nearly every night of the week.”

The organizers responsible for bringing these artists to town have been working for more than a year to make this year’s festival a reality, Hartline said.

“The committees had a wish list of artists they wanted to bring in. So it’s never hard to find people, just hard to find funds for them,” Hartline said. “However, it all came together quite nicely this year.”

Kicking off the festivities on Friday, May 9, will be Strout, who will be giving a talk about her career and creative process at 7:30 p.m. inside the Dowagiac Middle School Performing Arts Center. In addition, there will be a reception and book signing, which will be limited to 100 people, Hartline said.

“It’s a nice intimate setting,” she said. “You won’t like the guy stuck in the back of the room.”

Strout, who grew up on the East Coast, is a Pultizer Prize winning writer, whose first story was published when she just 26 years old. Her list of novels include “Amy and Isabelle,” “Abide With Me,” “Olive Kitteridge” and “The Burgess Boys.”

On Saturday, May 10, the dance troupe Dancing Wheels will perform at 7:30 p.m. in the Dale A. Lyons Building Theatre on Southwestern Michigan College. True to its name, many of the performers have disabilities, performing intricate dance routines from wheelchairs.

“The director [Mary Verdi-Fletcher] was the first professional dancer from a wheelchair,” Hartline said. “She wanted to share her love of dancing with people in similar positions.”

On Wednesday, May 14, professional storyteller Weitkamp will host a family performance at 7:30 p.m. at the Lyons Theatre. She will also host a storytelling workshop on Tuesday at 7 p.m.

“[Weitkamp] is very good at making connections with her audience,” Hartline said. “I can’t wait for her to bring her personality to this city.”

In addition to her public performances, Weitkamp will also visit Dowagiac classrooms throughout the week, sharing entertaining, yet educational, stories with local children.

“Our students are accustomed to having these artists visit them in school,” Hartline said. “It’s pretty special, not every school district has something like this.”

Finally, capping off the week will be Ryder, at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, May 17 at the middle school. The Michigan native has been performing since the 1960s, with hit songs such as “Devil with a Blue Dress On,” “Sock It to Me, Baby” and “Come See About Me.”

“[Ryder] is still a hardworking artist, who is still touring and recording today,” Hartline said. “He isn’t willing to sit back and coast his way to retirement, he still enjoys making new music and performing old favorites that fans might remember.”

Despite the amount of work that happened behind the scenes to bring these acts to town, Hartline said the festivities will all have a casual, small-town feel to them.

“Even though it’s organized and professional, it feels like you’re picking up your best friends to have a fun night on the town,” she said.

Prices for the events and schedule will be available on the festival’s website, dogwoodfinearts.com.