News BookCon Authors Publish Open Letter Condemning BookCon Organizer’s Parent Company RELX Over ICE Ties Authors Alix E. Harrow, Olivie Blake, and more raise concerns about BookCon 2026 By Molly Templeton | Published on February 9, 2026 Photo: ReedPop Comment 0 Share New Share Photo: ReedPop Last year, it was announced that BookCon—the New York City book culture convention presented by ReedPop—would return. The event, set for April 18 & 19 at NYC’s Javits Center, is already sold out, and the website lists featured guests that include Chuck Tingle, Carmen Maria Machado, Holly Black, and Heated Rivalry author Rachel Reid, among many others. Those guests include authors Alix E. Harrow and Olivie Blake, who have put together an open letter condemning ReedPop parent company RELX for its connections to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. As the letter—addressed to RELX CEO Erik Engstrom, Nick Luff (CFO), and Paul Ashton Walker (Chair)—explains: We are some of the authors that make events like BookCon—run by your subsidiary, ReedPop—possible. Another of your subsidiaries, LexisNexis, has a $22.1 million contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), supplying them with the data they need to surveil and terrorize our neighbors, friends, and families. We condemn any collaboration with ICE and call for the immediate termination of all contracts between RELX and ICE. The letter follows growing concerns about ReedPop’s parent company. As readers and authors began to note and criticize the connection between RELX and ICE, ReedPop released a statement on social media, saying: We at ReedPop do not sell customer information to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.ReedPop/RX [Reed Exhibitions] operates entirely at arm’s length and independently. None of our data is shared for marketing or commercial use by any other entity within our parent company. ReedPop’s statement links to its privacy policy, which is less clear about what happens to users’ personal information. It reads, in part, “Depending on the Service provided, we share personal information with: Our affiliates, trading names and divisions within the Reed Exhibitions group of companies worldwide and certain RELX companies that provide technology, customer service and other shared services functions.” ReedPop also runs Emerald City Comic Con, New York Comic Con, PAX, and C2E2, among other conventions. [end-mark] The post Authors Publish Open Letter Condemning BookCon Organizer’s Parent Company RELX Over ICE Ties appeared first on Reactor.