Ann Arbor (or its surrounding region) is also the setting (or the presumed setting) for a number of novels and short story collections, including:

• Justin McCarthy, Dear Lady Disdain (1875), as "New Padua"
• Karl Edwin Harriman, Ann Arbor Tales (1902)
• Lloyd Cassel Douglas, Magnificent Obsession (1929)
• Allan Seager, A Frieze of Girls: Memoirs as Fiction (1964)
• David Osborn, Open Season (1974)
• Edward Keyes, The Michigan Murders (1976) (This is a non-fiction work)
• Marge Piercy, Braided Lives (1982)
• Nancy Willard, Things Invisible to See (1985)
• Susan Holtzer, Something To Kill For (1995)
• Susan Holtzer, Curly Smoke (1996)
• Jerry Prescott, Deadly Sweet in Ann Arbor (1996)
• Susan Holtzer, Bleeding Maize and Blue (1997)
• Susan Holtzer, Black Diamond: A Mystery at the University of Michigan (1998)
• Charles Baxter, Feast of Love (2000)
• Susan Holtzer, The Silly Season (2000)
• Susan Holtzer, The Wedding Game (2001)

Ann Arbor is the setting for much of the film The Four Corners of Nowhere (1995). Parts of the film Jumper (2008) are set in Ann Arbor, using both footage shot locally and footage using Peterborough, Ontario as an Ann Arbor stand-in.