By Andrew Richard Albanese, Editor-in-Chief
With London Book Fair set to host its first event in its new home at Excel in 2027, Fair officials last week announced that the fair is also bringing back its Market Focus program for the first time since 2022—with Japan set to take center stage.“We’re over the moon to bring back the Market Focus Program in 2027,” said Emma Lowe, Director of The London Book Fair, at a media event last week, and singling out Japan as “the hottest literature in translation right now, spanning the whole range of book genres, from fiction to self-help, to best-in-class manga.” LBF reps said that in 2025, the top seven translated authors in the U.K. all hailed from Japan, as well as 24 of the Top 50.
Emma Lowe
Yoshiaki Yoshino, International Affairs and Promotion Manager at Japan Book Publishers Association, said Japan was honored to be the 2027 market focus in London.
“In recent years, Japanese authors have gained increasing recognition in the U.K. market, and building on this momentum, we are excited to introduce an even broader and more diverse range of Japanese publishing genres and storytelling, showcasing a wide variety of publishers and titles,” Yoshino said. “We hope this program will inspire the next generation of creators, editors, and readers by demonstrating that publishing is a truly creative and dynamic industry.
Writers’ Summit and More
In addition to announcing the return of its Market Focus, LBF officials also announced a slate of conferences set to take place at Excel London on Monday 15 March 2027, the day before the fair’s officials start.
The Monday lineup will include The Writers’ Summit, the annual gathering of writers interested in understanding more about the book business; and a conference focusing on book production to be organized by the IPG, and HP ConTEXT.
Fair officials also announced that the submissions window is now open for the London Book Fair’s Seminar Program, reps asking encouraging entrants to specify which stage they’d like their session to appear (the LBF program features several stages, including the Main Stage, Tech Theatre, Author HQ, Literary Translation Theatre, First Timers’ Hub, The Salon (formerly English PEN), Market Focus Theatre, Audio Theatre, and Sustainability Hub. For More information is available here.
The 2027 London Book Fair is set to run from March 16-18, 2027, the first in its new home at the Excel Center. While some fairgoers expressed concern about Excel’s location, far from its longtime home in West London, it had become clear over the last decade that the Fair had outgrown its home at Olympia.
Fair officials said move to Excel will also offer significantly more capacity, including more atrium seating, better meeting rooms, more “built-in seating” on the show floor, and a new, permanent home for the International Rights Center. Excel will also offer something that Olympia sorely lacked: good Wi-Fi. After major improvements, LBF reps say Excel will be “the first fully 5G enabled venue in Europe,” with the venue able to accommodate “up to 200,000 devices to be connected concurrently.”
Registration for the 2027 London Book Fair (LBF) will open in November. More information is available here.