Berkeley zine fest

It's not called Berkeley zine fest, but I wrote a lot of letters yesterday at the fest and always called it that because I couldn't remember the actual name.  It used to be Easy Bay Alternative Press Book Fair, I think.  And now it's East Bay Alternative Book and Zine Fest, I think.  This is its third year.  I tabled its first year, and I attended but did not table last year.  This year, Ming and I tabled.

It was run by Rock Paper Scissors and Tomas of Rad Dad.  We arrived early but were greeted warmly by Tomas, who has always been so nice to me.  I can't remember how he and I met, but it was years ago through zines.

Tomas showed us our table, which I thought was in a good spot, at the edge of the room.  We were next to a poet on one side who had just books and broadsides, and an illustrator on the other side who had a comic about a rabbit who gets lost in San Francisco and a lot of full color postcards.  Both neighbors were very good neighbors, and it was a pleasure to sit beside them.

I was amazed at how well I did at the fest.  After tabling in the summer at Portland Zine Symposium, I swore I would never table again.  But I did great.  I met some wonderful people, including poet Ian Kahl, who I had corresponded with before--I wrote a review of his book Anxiety Is a Rambling Dagger on my zine review blog.

After the fest, Ming and I spent a couple hours with Ming's kids--we had Indian food and ice cream and shopped.  It was a good day.