BookCon will host a virtual Read-a-Thon on Saturday, April 11, from 12:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. ET, as part of its new BookCon Virtual Author Tour Series, which launched last week. The series will run through the spring.

The kickoff event will feature a slate of authors performing 15-minute readings and q&a sessions via BookCon’s Facebook page. Viewers will be asked to make donations to the Book Industry Charitable (Binc) Foundation in order to assist booksellers who are affected by COVID-19.

To date, the list of readings include:

  • 12pm-12:15pm: Introduction and welcome by BookCon and Binc teams
  • 12:15pm-12:30pm: Lamar Giles
  • 12:30pm-12:45pm: Andrew Eliopulous
  • 12:45pm-1pm: Kacen Callendar
  • 1pm-1:15pm: Justina Ireland
  • 1:15pm-1:30pm: Justin Reynolds
  • 1:30pm-1:45pm: Becky Albertalli & Aisha Saeed
  • 1:45pm-2pm: Tobly McSmith
  • 2pm-2:15pm: Tahereh Mafi
  • 2:15pm-2:30pm: Layton Green
  • 2:30pm-2:45pm: Marie Lu (The Kingdom of Back)
  • 2:45pm-3pm: Zan Romanoff (Look)
  • 3pm-3:15pm: Melissa de la Cruz (The Queen’s Assassin)
  • 3:15pm-3:30pm: Cameron Lund (The Best Laid Plans)
  • 3:30pm-3:45pm: Laurie Halse Anderson (Shout)
  • 3:45pm-4pm: Ransom Riggs (The Conference of the Birds)
  • 4pm-4:15pm: Soman Chainani
  • 4:15pm-4:30pm: Shaun David Hutchinson
  • 4:30pm-4:45pm: Victoria Aveyard
  • 4:45pm-5pm: Kelly Yang
  • 5pm-5:15pm: Julian Winter (The Summer of Everything)
  • 5:15pm-5:30pm: Lilah Suzanne (Tack and Jibe)
  • 5:30pm-5:45pm: Makenzie Campbell (Nineteen)
  • 5:45pm-6pm: Emily Juniper (A Strangely Wrapped Gift)
  • 6pm-6:15pm: Hannah Templer (Cosmoknights, GLOW)
  • 6:15pm-6:30pm: Nick Tapalansky and Kate Glasheen (A Radical Shift of Gravity)

"BookCon was created from the desire to offer readers a place to meet and interact with their favorite authors alongside people who are as passionate about books as they are," Jenny Martin, BookCon's event director, said in a statement. "Now, more than ever, we are eager to provide that sense of community to our fans and are excited to debut our first round of virtual events."

Reedpop, the subsidiary of Reed Exhibitions that holds both BookExpo and BookCon, maintains that the events will still be held at the Javits Center in New York City in late July, despite all of the Big Five houses dropping out of the events due to the Covid-19 epidemic.