Five years after “retiring” BookCon and BookExpo, ReedPop has announced—to the surprise of many in the book business—that it plans to revive BookCon. The new iteration of the consumer-facing show is slated for April 18-19, 2026, returning to its former home in New York City’s Javits Center.

Jenny Martin, who headed up the earlier iteration of BookCon as well as BookExpo, is serving as event director of the reborn show. Martin stressed that the revived event will bear no resemblance to BookExpo, an industry trade show, saying that the BookCon team is “focused wholly on delivering a consumer event.” Much like its earlier iteration, which was among the first large-scale fan events catering to younger genre readers, Martin said the upcoming BookCon will feature book signings, panel discussions, book club meetups, sprayed edges workshops, book swaps, a “fantasy ball,” and more.

ReedPop, the boutique arm of Reed Exhibitions, has long “had it in the back of our minds to revive it when the time was right,” said Martin. “We have been successfully growing the literary track within our broader pop culture events since the pandemic and felt that now it was time to serve the bookish community in a bigger way.”

BookCon 2026 will be held in the Javits Center’s new building, Javits North, as well as the new Halls 3 and 1A, which Martin said offer “two show floors and multiple stages and panel rooms.”

Both BookCon and BookExpo were discontinued by parent company ReedPop in December 2020, after the pandemic forced it to cancel the shows that had been planned for spring of that year. ReedPop launched BookCon in 2014 as part of BookExpo, developing it into a standalone event that followed the trade show and ran until 2019; PW previously described the event as “BookExpo on steroids, where booklovers are literary tastemakers and YA authors are rock stars.” ReedPop continues to host New York Comic Con and other consumers facing shows.

Looking to give an early boost to ticket sales for BookCon, Martin sent an email to attendees of New York Comic Con, Emerald City Comic Con, and other ReedPop shows earlier today. Len Vlahos—a literary consultant for ReedPop, who previously worked at the American Booksellers Association and Book Industry Study Group and is a past owner of Tattered Cover Book Store—followed up on that email with his own missive to “publisher friends,” announcing the show’s return and promising to “follow up early next week with author and panel submission guidelines, dates, and deadlines.”

Since the discontinuation of BookExpo, publishing industry members have been ambivalent about the prospects of a new tentpole trade show in the United States. Some are eager to see the creation of a new national event, while others, especially executives, believe that the payoff is unlikely to outweigh the overhead expenses. There has been even less chatter about BookCon, which many in the industry seem to have largely forgotten.

Still, in the five years since the event’s demise, the BookTok boom has reshaped genre publishing, turning book fandom into a profession, minting new bestsellers, and tapping into the energy and enthusiasm of legions of young readers. Amid this new landscape, BookCon may very well be a viable proposition. It appears, at least, to have convinced ReedPop executives that the time is right to try BookCon once again.

“The bookish communities on TikTok, Instagram, and Threads will be a key component to the show,” said Martin. “They bring people together, and they’re important to the publishers in terms of marketing so we are embracing them with open arms.” She added that BookCon will be “largely geared towards Gen Z and Millennial women,” but aims to “be as beautifully diverse and inclusive as the communities we serve.”