OC Zine Fest Goes Virtual Amid Pandemic

For the past three years, Anaheim Central Library has given the OC Zine Fest a steady place to call home. The local event celebrating those stapled, indie self-published works of creative writing and art has only grown in popularity. Vendors offering zines, stickers, patches and artwork coiled through all three levels of the library. Breakout rooms hosted panel discussions, workshops and speakers for all to enjoy.

Only this year, with the chaos unleashed by coronavirus, many zinesters wondered if the annual event would be cancelled. A date had already been decided on before the pandemic, but once stay-at-home orders upended everyday life in mid-March, the Anaheim Central Library has remained off-limits to the public ever since.

Chlöe Van Stralendorff, a communications specialist with the library, and the whole event organizing crew took the dilemma on as a creative challenge, one requiring a little ingenuity, especially as they decided early on that an in-person fest wasn’t going to happen in the summer.

Read more on my latest "Off the Page" monthly column for LibroMobile:

https://www.libromobile.com/post/oc-zine-fest-goes-virtual-amid-pandemic