The Bay Area Book Festival: A Great Event for Families
EmpowerMint Press attended the Bay Area Book Festival in Berkeley, CA for the first time this weekend. There were many great California-based authors, publishers, bookstores, and writing programs. David Keyes, author of “What If My Nana Was a Banana?” and I had a table on the Avenue of Authors in a tent with other excellent children’s book authors. We had so much fun connecting with other exhibitors and authors, but most importantly, we really enjoyed meeting new readers and getting our books to them. Since it was Mother’s Day weekend, both “Nana Banana” and “What Are Mommies Made Of?” garnered a lot of interest among festival attendees.
If you’ve never been to the Bay Area Book Festival, the outdoor venue is located in Downtown Berkeley in Martin Luther King Jr. Park between Center Street and Allston at MLK Way. The Farmers’ Market is in the same park which makes it easy for locals to stop by the book festival to check out books, grab some lunch, or read in one of the fun reading pods or hammocks. Kids and adults enjoyed live music, food from local vendors, book readings, crafts, and more fun activities.
At the EmpowerMint Press booth we had our two books published by EmpowerMint Press, free “Nana Banana” bookmarks, and cute erasers and stickers. On Sunday, we even had balloon animals for all of the kids! The crowd in our tent was zany, silly, sweet and so much fun. Thanks to you all for coming out! We really enjoyed seeing you all and chatting about books and balloons.
The Bay Area Book Festival ran from 11-5 on Saturday and Sunday, May 7-8, 2022. We’d like to thank all of the authors at the festival, most especially our tent mates who were kind and had beautiful books! Please see some of their books linked below:
Kid Beowulf, by Alexis E. Fajardo
Maisie’s Scrapbook, by Samuel Narh with art by Jo Loring-Fisher
I Grab the Mic, by Malik Sickstein and illustrated by Paige Mason
Meow is Not a Cat, by Kelly Tills and illustrated by Max Saladrigas
The Sharing Bear, by Mark Schustrin and illustrated by Sam Island
Who Loves Mama? by Cathy Schmidt
The Crane Princess, by Majken Bullard Design
Durchhalten, by Maureen Meredith Cogliati
We hope to see you all again next year!