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The Rest of the Best

Published December 13, 2016

When it comes to choosing the year’s best book covers, it seems that everyone is at it these days…

Against Everything by Mark Greif; design by Kelly Blair (Pantheon / 2016)
Private Novelist by Nell Zink; design by Sara Wood, art by Evgenia Loli (Ecco / 2016)

“These covers are challenging without being impenetrable and playful without being precious — none of which is an easy task for a designer. If good design might lure us into an experience that makes us smarter, then we’ve hit the jackpot when the book allows us to spend time within the head space of a stranger.”     

I always look forward to Matt Dorfmann’s selections for the New York Times Book Review. Matt is the NYTBR‘s art director and a cover designer in his own right so he knows what he’s talking about, and his choices are always interesting. If I am honest, I think this is the list the designers (American designers at least) really pay attention to. And it’s worth noting that half of Matt’s choices this year were designed by women. 

Today Will Be Different by Maria Semple; design by Kelly Blair; cover art by Geoff McFetridge (Little Brown & Co / October 2016)
I’m Supposed to Protect You From All This by Nadja Spiegelman; design by Grace Han (Riverhead / August 2016)

Slate’s list of Best Book Jackets of 2016 includes notes from the designers about each cover.  

Hag-seed by Margaret Atwood; design by Matthew Broughton; illustration by Vladimir Zimakov (Hogarth / October 2016)
Multiple Choice by Alejandro Zambra; design Jonathan Pelham (Granta / October 2016)

Vyki Hendy and Eric Wilder have chosen  — with input from designers Erin Fitzsimmons and Stuart Bache — 25 of the year’s covers for SPINE Magazine. 

All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders; design by Will Staehle (Tor Books / January 2016)
Sex Object by Jessica Valenti; design by Lynn Buckley (Dey Street / June 2016)

Jarry Lee chose 32 “of the most beautiful book covers of 2016” for BuzzFeed.

The Night Cyclist by Stephen Graham Jones; cover art by keith Negley
The Vegetarian by Han Kang; design by Christopher Brand

And last but not least, Paste’s selections includes “a few novelette and short story covers.“

Published in Books and Design