The 2026 edition of the London Book Fair was once again held at Olympia from March 10th to March 12th and Anna Soler-Pont attended on behalf of the Pontas Agency. This is the last time the fair will be held at Olympia, as it is changing venues in 2027, moving to Excel in the Docklands, where it was held once in 2006.
This year's fair felt optimistic and buzzy (with many fairgoers seconding this feeling), despite so many conversations about the terrible state of the world, with so many ongoing wars internationally, which slightly impacted attendance. Some attendees coming in from India or Australia were unable to make it due to cancelled flights in the Middle East.
Anna Soler-Pont also took the chance to meet up with several of Pontas' UK-based authors like Virginia Bonet (pictured left), a Spanish-born London-based debut author whose first novel Flowers of the Past (Las Flores del Ayer) will be published in July 2026 by NdeNovela/Planeta, and long-time Brighton-based client Jill Johnson (below right, with Anna Soler-Pont). Jill Johnson is the author of the successful Professor Eustacia Rose mystery novels. Devil's Breath, the first book in the series, was a BBC Between The Covers Bookclub pick, an Amazon bestseller and a finalist for the 2024 Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Novel and Best First Novel, and has been translated into several languages (next up, Swedish!).
Anna also shared a wonderful evening with UK-based Musih Tedji Xaviere and Selali Fiamanya (pictured below left with Anna Soler-Pont), both working on their sophomore novels. Xaviere is the author of These Letters End in Tears, published by Catapult in the US and by Jacaranda in the UK and shortlisted for Book of the Year in the Discover category at the 2025 British Book Awards with translation rights sold into Danish, Dutch, Italian and Slovenian. These Letters End in Tears also won the Pontas & JJ Bola Emerging Writers Prize, for which Selali was selected as a finalist. He published his debut novel Before We Hit the Ground with Borough Press in February 2025. Mexican author Verónica Llaca (below right, with her husband) was also in London during the week of the book fair, attending an event at the National Liberal Club to speak about her novel Blood Ties, originally published in Spanish by Planeta México in 2021 under the title La herencia and translated into English with Mountain Leopard Press/Headline in 2024.
As always, the fair is a great opportunity for publishing professionals from all over to meet in person, network, and talk about what we do best: books and more books, translation rights, and film and TV adaptations. We enjoy catching up with long-time publishing colleagues and meeting more recent contacts for the first time!
In the photos above, Anna Soler-Pont with Nelleke Geel (left), from Dutch house Meridiaan Uitgevers. Nelleke published the 2026 Dutch Booksellers Prize-winning novel In My Eyes I Carry Clouds (In mijn ogen draag ik wolken) by Dutch-Afghan author Forugh Karimi. Rights worldwide are represented by Pontas and all translation (except Korean) and audiovisual rights are available. We're also pleased to share that right after our meeting in London, Meridiaan pre-empted Dutch translation rights to The Price for Being Born, Mallorcan author Laura Gost's forthcoming novel, to be published in the original Catalan and translated into Spanish in September 2026. French and World English rights to the novel were also pre-empted days after the fair. Pictured on the right, we also caught up with Johann Defer, the editorial director at Folio, Gallimard's pocket imprint, for their thriller collection. Folio has just published the pocket edition of the French translation of Awaiting the Flood (Esperando al Diluvio) by Spanish bestselling author Dolores Redondo in a sleek new design (above right) while Gallimard published her latest novel Those Who Don't Sleep NASH (Las que no duermen NASH) in a trade edition.
Anna also met with several English-language editors to discuss new and forthcoming projects, pictured below, like Olamide Olatunji-Bello, acquiring editor at Transworld/PRH UK, Anna Michels, senior editorial director at Sourcebooks and Poisoned Pen Press in the US, and Hannah Chukwu at Dialogue Books in the UK.
To all of you, thank you and see you next year!