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Notable Book Covers of 2023

At the turn of the year, writer and activist Cory Doctorow coined the term “enshitification.” Although he was specifically describing the process of online services getting worse for users, it was hard not to see it everywhere in 2023.

In his annual look at the year’s best book covers for the New York Times, art director Matt Dorfman recounts a friend describing 2023 as a “year of survival”, a year of “no growth, no withering, just getting by.”

This year saw a centuries-old business contending with rounds of buyouts and layoffs, alongside an endless news cycle involving two brutal wars from which no authors, friends, enemies or strangers were immune from accountability for any unrehearsed sentiment they might voice in passing. Add to this the ongoing concern about how artificial intelligence will affect a business historically dependent upon human creativity — yet through it all, there was still the matter of making books, and their covers, to get on with.

I read Matt’s piece the same day I read an article by Kyle Chayka in the New Yorker about his search for an epochal term to “evoke the panicky incoherence of our lives of late.” The suggestions range from the bland ‘Long 2016,’ to the incredibly ominous-sounding ‘Chthulucene,’ the Lovecraftian ‘New Dark Age,’ and the frankly terrifying and plausible ‘Jackpot’ from William Gibson’s 2014 novel The Peripheral.

This was the context of life and work in 2023.

Matt notes some designers found inspiration in the zeitgeist. He’s not wrong. But, ironically perhaps, I feel less optimistic about the overall picture than he does.

At the risk of repeating what I’ve written in the past couple of years, it’s like we’re stuck in a holding pattern, circling the same design ideas. Trends have stuck around. A lot of covers feel safe. Some of this was the books themselves. I’m not sure exactly how many celebrity memoirs is too many, but I’m pretty sure we reached that point and sailed right past it in 2023. No doubt some of it is sales and marketing departments sanding down all the edges and demanding the tried and true (see Zachary Petit’s alternative best of 2023 piece on killed covers for Fast Company). But I would not be surprised if it designers were just getting caught up in the churn — too many books, too many covers, and too much other stuff to worry about.

Or maybe it’s just me.

One of the themes of the year was nostalgia, which I’m sure can also be put down to the present being pretty fucking awful. It was apparent across almost all genres, including literary fiction, but nowhere more so than in the resurgent supernatural suspense and horror categories. There were creative stylistic mashups with retro vibes, along side fastidious Stranger Things-like homages to the 1980s and Stephen King.

One genuinely pleasant surprise was the number of interesting covers from Canadian publishers this year. They’ve been quietly risk-averse in recent years, so it was nice to see a few bolder design choices getting approved. I was happy to see a Canadian cover was one of the top picks on Literary Hub’s (very, very long) list of the best covers of 2023.  

There were other things to cheer this year too.

Spine continued to give space to designers to talk about their work in a way I’ve never been able to do consistently here. You can find their 2023 cover picks here.

David Pearson started the Book Cover Review, a website for short reviews of book covers.

Zoe Norvell’s I Need A Book Cover, a resource for book cover inspiration as well as place for authors and publishers to connect with designers, also went live.

Steve Leard launched Cover Meeting, a podcast series of in-depth interviews with cover designers (including David and Zoe among others). As Mark Sinclair notes in his piece on book cover design this year for Creative Review, Steve’s conversations shed light on wider concerns in the industry as well as each designer’s individual process. Have a listen if you haven’t already.

Thanks for reading.

The Adult by Bronwyn Fischer; design by Kate Sinclair (Random House Canada / May 2023)

Also designed by Kate Sinclair:

The Annual Banquet of The Gravediggers’ Guild by Mathias Énard; design by John Gall (New Directions / December 2023)

I like John’s cover for Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck, also published by New Directions, a lot too.

Bariloche by Andrés Neuman; design by Alban Fischer (Open Letter / March 2023)

The Bee Sting by Paul Murray; design by Na Kim (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / August 2023)

Also designed by Na Kim:

Beijing Sprawl by Xu Zechen; design by Andrew Walters (Two Lines Press / June 2023)

Berlin by Bea Setton; design by Emily Mahon; cover image by Nataša Denić (Penguin Books / May 2023)

Also designed by Emily Mahon:

B.F.F. by Christie Tate; design by Ben Wiseman (Avid Reader Press / February 2023)

Blue Hunger by Viola Di Grado; design by Myunghee Kwon (Bloomsbury / March 2023)

Breaking and Entering by Don Gillmor; design by Michel Vrana; photograph by Joe Cohen (Biblioasis / August 2023)

Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll; design by Kaitlin Kall (Simon & Schuster / September 2023)

Brutes by Dizz Tate; design by Nicole Caputo (Catapult / February 2023)

Caret, Pilcrow and Cedilla by Adam Mars-Jones; design by Jonathan Pelham (Faber / August 2023)

I also really liked Jonny’s cover design for the UK edition of Tremor by Teju Cole, published by Faber.

Cat Prince by Michael Pedersen; design by Gray318 (Little, Brown / July 2023)

The Circle by Katherena Vermette; design by Jennifer Griffiths; art by KC Adams (Hamish Hamilton Canada / September 2023)

Chrysalis by Anna Metcalfe; design by Jack Smyth (Granta / May 2023)

The Complete Works of Álvaro de Campos by Fernando Pessoa; design by Peter Mendelsund (New Directions / July 2023)

The Details by Ia Genberg translated by Kira Josefsson; design Stephen Brayda; illustration Najeebah Al-Ghadban (Harpervia / August 2023)

A Dictator Calls by Ismail Kadare; design by Matt Broughton (Vintage / August 2023)

The Employees by Olga Ravn; design by Paul Sahre (New Directions / February 2023)

Excavations by Hannah Michell; design by Arsh Raziuddin (One World / July 2023)

The Girls’ Guide to Hunting and Fishing by Melissa Bank; design by Annie Atkins (Penguin / May 2023)

Glaciers by Alexis M. Smith; design by Beth Steidle (Tin House / July 2023)

Good Men by Arnon Grunberg; design by Anna Jordan (Open Letter / May 2023)

Greek Lessons by Han Kang; design by Anna Kochman (Hogarth / April 2023)

Hangman by Maya Binyam; design by Alex Merto; art by Belkis Ayón (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / August 2023)

Also designed by Alex Merto:

Hope by Andrew Ridker; design by Tyler Comrie; photograph by Melissa Ann Pinney (Viking / July 2023)

Tyler Comrie’s cover for Time Without Keys by Ida Vitale, published by New Directions, is also very nice.

House Woman by Adorah Nworah; design by Jaya Nicely (Unnamed Press / June 2023)

I have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai; design by Elizabeth Yaffe (Viking / February 2023)

The Illiterate by Ágota Kristóf; design by Oliver Munday (New Directions / April 2023)

Also designed by Oliver Munday:

Island City by Laura Adamczyk; design by Jennifer Heuer (FSG Originals / March 2023)

The Joy of Consent by Manon Garcia; design by Jaya Miceli (Belknap Press / October 2023)

Also designed by Jaya Miceli:

Julia by Sandra Newman; design by Luke Bird (Mariner / October 2023)

Also designed by Luke Bird:

The Last Bookseller by Gary Goodman; design by Kimberly Glyder (University of Minnesota Press / October 2023)

The Librarianist by Patrick DeWitt; design by Allison Saltzman (Ecco / July 2023)

The Love of Singular Men by Victor Heringer; design by Pablo Delcan (New Directions / September 2023)

Lucky Dogs by Helen Schulman; design by Janet Hansen; photograph by Christopher Brand (Knopf / June 2023)

Also designed by Janet Hansen:

Our Migrant Souls by Héctor Tobar; design by Rodrigo Corral (MCD / May 2023)

Poverty by Matthew Desmond; design by Christopher Brand (Crown / March 2023)

Prophet by Helen MacDonald and Sin Blache; design by Dan Mogford; lettering by Martin Naumann (Vintage / August 2023)

Really Good, Actually by Monica Heisey; design by Mumtaz Mustafa; art by Sari Shryack (William Morrow & Co / January 2023)

Ripe by Sarah Rose Etter; design by Natalia Olbinski; art by Angela Faustina (Scribner / July 2023)

The Sea Elephants by Shastri Akella; design by Dave Litman (Flatiron Books / July 2023)

Shy by Max Porter; design by Carlos Esparza (Graywolf / May 2023)

Someone Who Isn’t Me by Geoff Rickly; design by Jesse Reed; art by Jesse Draxler (Rose Books / July 2023)

Sublunar by Harald Voetmann; design by Jamie Keenan (New Directions / August 2023)

Also designed by Jamie Keenan:

The Sullivanians by Alexander Stille; design by June Park (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / June 2023)

Also designed by June Park:

To Battersea Park by Philip Hensher; design by Jo Thomson (Fourth Estate / March 2023)

Tunnel 29 by Helena Merriman; design by Pete Garceau (PublicAffairs / January 2023)

Also designed by Pete Garceau:

The Vunerables by Sigrid Nunez; design by Lauren Peters-Collaer (Riverhead / November 2023)

Also designed by Lauren Peter-Collaer:

While Supplies Last by Anita Lahey; design by David Drummond (Signal Editions / April 2023)

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Book Covers of Note, October 2023

I am lost for words in the face of so much tragedy this month, so I am just going to let the covers speak for themselves. Keep safe.

All The Years Combine: The Grateful Dead in Fifty Shows by Ray Robertson; design by Jason Arias (Biblioasis / November 2023)

The type is Lithops from Velvetyne Type Foundry.

The Annual Banquet of The Gravediggers’ Guild by Mathias Énard; design by John Gall (New Directions / December 2023)

Bathhouse and Other Tanka by Ishii Tatsuhiko; design by Oliver Munday (New Directions / November 2023)

The Book of Ayn by Lexi Freiman; design Nicole Caputo (Catapult / November 2023)

The Dimensions of a Cave by Greg Jackson; design by Kate Jensen / Rodrigo Corral Studio (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / October 2023)

The cover of the UK edition published by Granta was designed by Jamie Keenan.

Dust by Jay Owens; design by Eli Mock (Abrams / November 2023)

Family Meal by Bryan Washington; design by Grace Han (Riverhead / October 2023)

The Future, The Future by Adam Thirlwell; design by Alex Merto (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / October 2023)

Going Infinite by Michael Lewis; design by Pete Garceau (W. W. Norton / October 2023)

Good Men by Arnon Grunberg; design by Anna Jordan (Open Letter / May 2023)

Hope by Andrew Ridker; design by Tyler Comrie (Viking / July 2023)

The Last Bookseller by Gary Goodman; design by Kimberly Glyder (University of Minnesota Press / October 2023)

The Marvels of Youth by Tim Bowling; design by Peter Cocking (Buckrider Books / October 2023)

Menewood by Nicola Griffith; design by Na Kim; art by Anna and Elena Balbusso (MCD / October 2023)

The cover of Hild, the previous book in the series, also features art by the Balbusso twins (design by Charlotte Strick)

Mister Mister by Guy Gunaratne; design by Jack Smyth (Pantheon / October 2023)

Palace of Shadows by Ray Celestin; design by Nathan Burton (Pan Macmillan / October 2023)

Sonic Life by Thurston Moore; design by Michael J. Windsor (Doubleday / October 2024)

Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin) by Sly Stone; design by Rodrigo Corral (Auwa / October 2023)

Vengeance is Mine by Marie Ndiaye; design by Jack Smyth (Quercus Publishing / October 2023)

The cover of the US edition of Vengeance is Mine, published by Knopf, was designed by Jamie Keenan.

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Book Covers of Note, September 2023

Hey. I hope you’re safe and well and caught up on your podcasts, shows, and TBR pile.

I thought this was going to be a short post this month, and then it turned into a long one — or longer than expected at least. I don’t have too much to add to the covers. I’m busy, you’re busy. It’s almost October, literally no one has time for this! But there are some lovely covers this month. There’s a bit autumnal orange and ennui, some nice type, and a couple of Canadian covers (for those keeping count), and a couple of appropriately off-beat ones from our friends at New Directions.*

American Gun by Cameron McWhirter and Zusha Elinson; design by Rodrigo Corral (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / September 2023)

Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll; design by Kaitlin Kall (Simon & Schuster / September 2023)

The Circle by Katherena Vermette; design by Jennifer Griffiths; art by KC Adams (Hamish Hamilton Canada / September 2023)

Creep by Myriam Gurba; design by Clay Smith (Avid Reader Press / September 2023)

Disruptions by Steven Millhauser; design by Janet Hansen (Alfred A. Knopf / August 2023)

Fear by Robert Peckham; design by Tom Etherington (Profile / September 2023)

Goth by Lol Tolhurst; design by Timothy O’Donnell (Quercus Publishing / September 2023)

This whole thing is ridiculously in my wheelhouse. The cover photo is by the author (of course!), and there’s a fun note about trying to source the type in Timothy’s Instagram post about the design.

Grand Tour by Elisa Gonzalez; design by Na Kim (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)

I’m not sure it was the intention, but I like the trippy film title / goth art project quality of this.

How I Won a Nobel Prize by Julius Taranto; design by Lucy Kim (Little Brown & Co / September 2023)

The Lights by Ben Lerner; design by David Pearson (Granta / September 2023)

Hopefully you’ve all had chance to listen to David on the Cover Meeting podcast by now. It’s really good!

The cover of the US edition published by FSG was designed by Thom Colligan. It’s interesting that they’re similar and yet different. I wonder if it was brief or just a creative coincidence?

The Love of Singular Men by Victor Heringer; design by Pablo Delcan (New Directions / September 2023)

Love the red type on green.

Monstrilio by Gerardo Sámano Córdova; design by Alex Merto (Zando / March 2023)

This gives me decidedly 1990’s New York publishing vibes.

Starter Villain by John Scalzi; cover art by Tristan Elwell (Tor / September 2023)

This just makes me think of a corporate Behemoth.

Time Without Keys by Ida Vitale; design by Tyler Comrie (New Directions / September 2023)

We Measure the Earth With Our Bodies by Tsering Yangzom Lama; design by Mia Kwon; illustration by Grace J Kim (Bloomsbury / September 2023)

This is the paperback cover. Mia also designed the jacket of the hardcover published last year.

Wound by Oksana Vasyakina; design by Nicole Caputo; art by Jenny Barron (Catapult / September 2023)

The Wren, The Wren by Anne Enright; design by Kate Sinclair; art by Darek Grabus (McClelland & Stewart / September 2023)

I’m sure I’m not the only one to get Edward Hopper vibes from this cover.

The cover of the UK edition was designed by Suzanne Dean with a cover illustration by Anna Morrison.

*A bit of admin from last month: I finally managed to spend some time browsing a bookstore and I was able to ascertain that the cover of the US edition of Bridge by Lauren Beukes was designed by Kirin Diemont. Apologies to Kirin for not crediting her at the time in last month’s post. It’s updated now)

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Book Covers of Note, August 2023

I hope you’re safe and well wherever you are. What do we have this month? A few British covers for a change, a bit of Canadian content, a couple of indie presses, and even something from a university press, not to mention covers from all the usual suspects. Enjoy!

Anam by André Dao; design by Tiana Dunlop (Pan Macmillan / August 2023)

The Apartment by Ana Menéndez; design by Jaya Miceli (Counterpoint / June 2023)

The Bee Sting by Paul Murray; design by Na Kim (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / August 2023)

Breaking and Entering by Don Gillmor; design by Michel Vrana; photograph by Joe Cohen (Biblioasis / August 2023)

Bridge by Lauren Beukes; design by Lauren Wakefield (Penguin / August 2023)

Lauren also designed the cover of Afterland by Lauren Beukes which was on my list of notable covers back in 2020.

I like the cover of the US edition of Bridge published by Mulholland Books too. Let me know if you know who designed it and I’ll add in the credit! It was designed by Kirin Diemont.

Caret by Adam Mars-Jones; design by Jonathan Pelham (Faber / August 2023)

Jonny also re-designed the previous books in this series to match. They’re a lovely set that somehow feel very British, and very Faber. They sort of remind me of postwar pub signs and vintage lettering on canal barges. Anyway, I like them a lot.

A Dictator Calls Ismail Kadare; design by Matt Broughton (Vintage / August 2023)

(If anyone at PRH in the UK would like to send me a higher quality image, I’d be happy to replace the not quite sharp one above)

The cover of the US edition of A Dictator Calls, available from Counterpoint next month, was designed by Farjana Yasmin.

Everything / Nothing / Someone by Alice Carriere; design by Strick and WIlliams (Spiegel & Grau / August 2023)

Hangman by Maya Binyam; design by Alex Merto; art by Belkis Ayón (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / August 2023)

Happiness Falls by Angie Kim; design by Cassie Gonzales (Hogarth / August 2023)

The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride; design by Lauren Peters-Collaer (Riverhead / August 2023)

I love the colour palette of this one. The lettering is fun too.

Learned by Heart by Emma Donoghue; design by Lucy Kim (Little Brown and Company / August 2023)

I wonder if there is a post in book covers with dots? Maybe even one of dots in circle pattern? that might be a bit niche…

Lost Believers by Irina Zhorov; design by Emily Mahon (Scribner / August 2023)

Another nice palette / lettering combo.

Manor on the Viridian Sea by Eleanor P. Sam; design by Dorian Danielsen (Isalea Publishing / August 2023)

My Name is Iris by Brando Skyhorse; design by Richard Ljoenes (Avid Reader Press / August 2023)

Prophet by Helen MacDonald and Sin Blache; design by Dan Mogford; lettering by Martin Naumann (Vintage / August 2023)

Sublunar by Harald Voetmann; design by Jamie Keenan (New Directions / August 2023)

Hilarious,

Trialectic by Peter A. Alces; design by Jenny Volvovski (University of Chicago Press / August 2023)

Triangles are my favourite shape.

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Book Covers of Note, June 2023

Hey, I hope you are keeping safe and well. There’s a wide variety of styles this month, but pink, yellow and orange are something of a minor theme (although since writing this I’ve actually removed one of the covers that combined bright pink and yellow because the book isn’t out until September — you’ll see it in a couple of months).

I think we’re also starting to see a potential new trend with photographic covers for fiction. I don’t have the vocabulary to neatly identify the style of photography I mean (sorry photography people — I mostly studied paintings in school!), but it’s basically contemporary colour photographs of candid, and sometimes intimate, social moments. It’s different, if adjacent, to the more posed ‘stylish sad girl’ phenomenon, or the use of black and white photography for ‘serious’ literary fiction I think. Anyway, maybe it’s a thing? Time will tell…

American Ending by Mary Kay Zuravleff; design by Laura Williams; illustration by Nora Ayoagi (Blair / June 2023)

I feel like there should be more blackletter on book covers. Why isn’t this more a thing?

Bellies by Nicola Dinan; design by Beci Kelly; photograph by Bobby Doherty (Transworld / June 2023)

Cacophony of Bone by Kerri ní Dochartaigh; design by Rafi Romaya; illustration by Vasilisa Romanenko (Canongate / May 2023)

Forgiving Imelda Marcos by Nathan Go; design by Eric Fuentecilla (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / June 2023)

House Woman by Adorah Nworah; design by Jaya Nicely (Unnamed Press / June 2023)

Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck; design by John Gall (New Directions / June 2023)

La Tercera by Gina Apostol; design by Jaya Miceli (Soho Press / May 2023)

Lucky Dogs by Helen Schulman; design by Janet Hansen; photograph by Christopher Brand (Knopf / June 2023)

The Memory of Animals by Claire Fuller; design by Beth Steidle; art by Lisa Ericson (Tin House / June 2023)

I was wondering why the weirdly wonderful art seemed familiar and then I remembered that the cover of Lisa Wells’ nonfiction book Believers designed by Na Kim also makes use of Lisa Ericson painting…

I know I say everything gives me Annihilation vibes but Lisa Ericson’s art definitely gives me Annihilation vibes. And speaking of weird Vandermeer vibes…

The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Naylor; design by Alex Merto; illustration by María Jesús Contreras (Picador US / May 2023)

Paved Paradise by Henry Grabar; design by Ben Wiseman (Penguin / May 2023)

Ponyboy by Eliot Duncan; design by Luke Bird (Footnote Press / June 2023)

The cover of the US edition of Ponyboy, published by W.W. Norton this month, was designed by Richard Ljoenes. The cover photo is by Maria Molchanova.

The Rachel Incident by Caroline O’Donoghue; design by Nico Taylor; photograph by Ewen Spencer (Little Brown UK / June 2023)

The cover of the US edition of The Rachel Incident, published by Knopf, was designed by John Gall. The painting is by Gideon Rubin.

The UK cover also reminded me of the UK cover of Young Mungo by Douglas Stuart designed by Stuart Wilson which features a Wolfgang Tillmans photo.

(Oh and if anyone can tell me who designed and illustrated the Australian cover for The Rachel Incident — which is completely different again — I will be happy to add it in!)

Run Baby Run by Melissa Lenhardt; design by Olga Grlic (Graydon House / June 2023)

Soviet Self-Hatred by Eliot Borenstein; design by Philip Pascuzzo (Cornell University Press / June 2023)

Where I Slept by Libby Angel; design by W.H. Chong; photograph by Konrad Winkler (Text / May 2023)

Text have also just published a collection of W.H. Chong’s drawing and paintings called Portraits, which includes portraits of some designers you might recognize

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Notable Book Covers of 2022

2022. Twenty twenty-two. Two thousand and twenty-two… “Where did it go?” Or, sobbing, “ are we done yet?” It feels like both. It’s been a year that’s simultaneously dragged on interminably and disappeared in a cognitive blur.

I’m glad other people have already written about it.

At Creative Review, writer and editor Mark Sinclair picked his favourite covers of 2022 and reflected on industry trends in the UK, including the Design Publishing & Inclusivity mentorship program for under-represented creatives launched this year by Ebyan Egal, Donna Payne, and Steve Panton.

Literary Hub posted the best covers of the year as chosen by 31 designers. With a comprehensive 103 covers on the list, it tacitly poses the annual question “what do I have left to add to this conversation?” LitHub have been posting these lists for seven years apparently. I am an ancient desiccated husk.

Fast Company and the Washington Post asked slightly smaller groups of designers to write about their favourites covers.

Jason Kottke, back from sabbatical, posted his selections for 2022. I gather that Spine’s list is imminent.

Designer and art director Matt Dorfman chose the best book covers of 2022 for the New York Times, and empathized with the plight of the designers:

Most often, any personal stylistic expressions in their work are swallowed up in service to the multiple masters — editors, marketing directors, sales teams — who sign off on a book’s cover. There is also the matter of adhering to any one publisher’s dos and don’ts, which can inform mandates about typography, color palettes and production flourishes like embossing or metallic inks. For people employed in a theoretically creative pursuit, designers’ talents are often defined by how effortlessly they can make themselves disappear to serve the book.

Matt Dorfman, New York Times

No one captured the prevailing mood better than this Tom Gauld cartoon. A reminder, if one were needed, that nobody knows anything.

Earlier in the year, Australian reporter Rafqa Touma called out the trend of ‘well dressed and distressed’ young women on covers. As designer Mietta Yans notes, the covers often reflect their books’ stylish and sad protagonists, so I’m not sure this one is on the art departments.

Last year we had book blobs; this year we got more “ominous blobs” just to add to everyone’s existential dread.

Some of the trends I’ve talked about before spilled over into 2022. Collage, painting (contemporary, and historical — often tightly cropped), big skies, landscapes and seascapes, black and white photography (not just for LGBTQ+ trauma!), retro-ness, idiosyncratic display typefaces. Orange. Pink was in vogue too. The Instagram-ish combination of both pink and orange (sometimes with deep purple-ish blues too) seemed to be very much a thing this year. I suspect this is what happens when you ask designers to make things “pop” one too many times.

It is hard to know if these are genuine trends, or if it is just the stuff I notice. I’m sure there are things going on with commercial covers that I don’t pay enough attention to (although I will not be sad to see the popularity of that flat illustration style — the one that Slate pointed out in TWO THOUSAND AND FIFTEEN! — eventually fade away). I certainly don’t get the sense that everything looks the same, which is often the criticism. There is still room for a little weirdness and that can only be a good thing…

Best of Friends by Kamila Shamsie; design by Lauren Peters-Collaer (Riverhead / September 2022)

Also designed by Lauren Peters-Collaer:


Boy Friends by Michael Pedersen; design by Gray 318; illustration by Nathaniel Russell (Faber & Faber / July 2022)

Brother Alive by Zain Khalid; design by Jo Walker (Grove Press UK / August 2022)

A Calm & Normal Heart by Chelsea T. Hicks; design by Jaya Nicely (Unnamed Press / June 2022)

Carnality by Lina Wolff; design by Tyler Comrie (Other Press / July 2022)

The Bloater by Rosemary Tonks; design by Oliver Munday (New Directions / September 2022)

Also designed by Oliver Munday:


The Ghetto Within by Santiago H. Amigorena; design by Mike McQuade (HarperVia / August 2022)

A Girlhood by Carolyn Hays; design by Mel Four (Blair / September 2022)

The Haunting of Hajji Hotak by Jamil Jan Kochai; design by Zak Tebbal (Viking / July 2022)

How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu; design by Will Staehle (William Morrow & Co. / January 2022)

I Want to Keep Smashing Myself Until I Am Whole by Elias Canetti, edited by Joshua Cohen; design by Alex Merto; illustration Ian Woods (Picador USA / September 2022)

Also designed by Alex Merto:


Joan by Katherine J. Chen; design by Holly Ovenden (Hodder & Stoughton / July 2022)

The Last White Man by Mohsin Hamid; design by Ahlawat Gunjan (India Hamish Hamilton / August 2022)

The Last White Man by Mohsin Hamid; design by Chris Bentham (Hamish Hamilton / August 2022).

Lessons by Ian McEwan; design by Suzanne Dean; illustration by Tina Berning (Jonathan Cape / September 2022)

Also designed by Suzanne Dean:

The Julian Barnes cover also came in blue, and under the die-cut jacket is a beautiful photo from René Groebli’s photoessay The Eye of Love.


A Little Piece of Mind by Giles Paley-Phillips; design by Tree Abraham (Unbound / June 2022)

Tree had her own book, Cyclettes, published this year. You can read about the process of designing her own cover over at Spine.

No Land in Sight by Charles Simic; design by John Gall; photograph by Michael Kenna (Knopf / August 2022)

Also designed by John Gall:


O Caledonia by Elspeth Barker; design by Tristan Offit (Scribner / September 2022)

Also designed by Tristan Offit:


Offended Sensibilities by Alisa Ganieva; design by Emily Mahon (Deep Vellum / November 2022)

Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield; design by Ami Smithson (Picador / March 2022)

I also really liked Ami’s cover for the UK edition of New Animal by Ella Baxter.

The Pink Hotel by Liska Jacobs; design by June Park; (MCD / July 2022)

Also designed by June Park:


Pure Colour by Sheila Heti; design by Na Kim (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / February 2022)

Also designed by Na Kim:


The Raptures by Jan Carson; design by Irene Martinez Costa (Doubleday UK / January 2022)

The Red Zone by Chloe Caldwell; design by Michael Salu (Soft Skull Press / April 2022)

Sacrificio by Ernesto Mestre-Reed; design by Dana Li (SoHo Press / September 2022)

Also designed by Dana Li:


Shit Cassandra Saw by Gwen E. Kirby; design and illustration by Lydia Ortiz (Penguin Books / January 2022)

This is like hallucinatory nightmare vision of the Francis Cugat illustration on the cover of The Great Gatsby first edition.

Solenoid by Mircea Cărtărescu; design by Anna Jordan (Deep Vellum / October 2022)

The Status Game by Will Storr; design by Steve Leard (William Collins / July 2022)

True Biz by Sara Novic; design by Jack Smyth (Little, Brown / April 2022)

Jack did a lot of great covers this year. I could easily have posted a couple more with no dip in quality:


Trust by Hernan Diaz; design by Katie Tooke (Picador / August 2022)

The New York skyline was printed onto the edges of the books and then photographed for this one.

Walk the Vanished Earth by Erin Swan; design by Elizabeth Yaffe (Viking / May 2022)

The Waste Land by Matthew Hollis; design by Jamie Keenan (Faber & Faber / October 2022)

Watergate by Garrett M. Graff; design by Alison Forner (Avid Reader Press / February 2022)

Weasels in the Attic by Hiroko Oyamada; design by Luke Bird (Granta / November 2022)

Also designed by Luke Bird:


White Bull by Elizabeth Hughey; design by Alban Fischer (Sarabande Books / January 2022)

Also designed by Alban Fischer:

You can read about Alban’s design process for Till the Wheels Come Off at Spine.


Worn by Sofi Thanhauser; design by Janet Hansen (Pantheon / January 2022)

Also designed by Janet Hansen:


Yoga by Emmanuel Carrère; design by Rodrigo Corral (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / August 2022)

Also designed by Rodrigo Corral:


You Have a Friend in 10A by Maggie Shipstead; design by Kelly Blair; illustration by Toby Leigh (Knopf / May 2022)

You Made a Fool of Death With Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi; design by Anna Morrison (Faber and Faber / May 2022)

Young Mungo by Douglas Stuart; design by Christopher Moisan; photograph by Kyle Thompson (Grove Press / April 2022)

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Book Covers of Note, September 2022

Busy month. Lots of book covers. Gotta go…

Barred by Daniel S. Medwed; design by Chin-Yee Lai (Basic Books / September 2022)

Bliss Montage by Ling Ma; design by Rodrigo Corral (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / September 2022)

Rodrigo Corral also designed the cover of Ling Ma’s previous novel Severance.

Canción by Eduardo Halfon; design by Alban Fischer (Bellevue Literary Press / September 2022)

Drive by James Sallis; design by David Litman (Poisoned Pen Press / September 2022)

I was just talking about this book — how it is a near perfect thriller, but also great for dudes who don’t read a lot of fiction — so I was happy to see it’s been given a new lick of paint. And pink covers are, as I keep saying ad nauseam, a thing…

Fingers Crossed by Miki Berenyi; design by Paul Palmer-Edwards photo Jurgen Ostarhild (Nine Eight Books / September 2022)

I’m including this because of the beautiful photo (with a colour palette remarkably on trend in 2022) and my inevitable teenage crush on indie style icon Miki from Lush.

I Want to Keep Smashing Myself Until I Am Whole by Elias Canetti, edited by Joshua Cohen; design by Alex Merto; illustration Ian Woods (Picador USA / September 2022)

This collage is incredible.

A Girlhood by Carolyn Hays; design by Mel Four (Blair / September 2022)

Kick the Latch by Kathryn Scanlan; design by John Gall (New Directions / September 2022)

Lessons by Ian McEwan; design by Suzanne Dean; illustration by Tina Berning (Jonathan Cape / September 2022)

Modern Fables by Mikka Jacobsen; design by Natalie Olsen (Freehand Books / September 2022)

Perish by Latoya Watkins; design by Grace Han (Tiny Reparations / August 2022)

Poūkahangatus by Tayi Tibble; design by Linda Huang; art by Simone Noronha (Knopf / July 2022)

Sacrificio by Ernesto Mestre-Reed; design by Dana Li (SoHo Press / September 2022)

This reminded me Peter Mendelsund‘s Amerika cover for Schocken back in the day. But, as is the norm around here, the two covers do not actually look that much alike side by side…

Strangers to Ourselves by Rachel Aviv; design by Rodrigo Corral (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / September 2022)

We Spread by Iain Reid; design by Chelsea McGuckin (Scout Press / September 2022)

Are letters growing roots a mini-thing?

Worn Out by Alyssa Hardy; design by Emily Mahon; embroidery and dyeing by Alex Stikeleather (New Press / September 2022)

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Book Covers of Note, August 2022

I’m doing my best to catch up a little bit this month, but there’s no such thing as a quiet month in publishing any more. Just rest assured nobody knows what they’re doing — we’re just here for the chaos and romance…

Acceptance by Emi Nietfeld; design by Stephanie Ross (Penguin Press / August 2022)

As It Turns Out by Alice Sedgwick Wohl; design by Alex Merto (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / August 2022)

And kudos to Alex for not putting the author or the title — or any text at all! — on the cover (and getting away with it)…

Brother Alive by Zain Khalid; design by Jo Walker (Grove Press UK / August 2022)

Brown Neon by Raquel Gutiérrez; design by Alban Fischer (Coffee House Press / June 2022)

Even the Darkest Night by Javier Cercas; design by Jack Smyth (Knopf / June 2022)

The Foghorn Echoes by Danny Ramadan; design by Jennifer Griffiths (Viking Canada / August 2022)

Kiki Man Ray by Mark Braude; design by Jaya Miceli (W.W. Norton / August 2022)

(Sorry about the image size — if anyone at Norton would like to send me a higher res version, I’ll be happy to update it!)

The Last White Man by Mohsin Hamid; design by Ahlawat Gunjan (India Hamish Hamilton / August 2022)

You can listen to Ahlawat Gunjan talk about his life and work in this charming TEDx talk from 2020.

The typographic cover of the UK edition of The Last White Man, also published by Hamish Hamilton this month, was designed by Chris Bentham.

The Lovers by Paolo Cognetti; design by Etta Voorsanger-Brill (Harvill Secker / June 2022)

The cover of the US edition, published by HarperVia, was designed by Alicia Tatone:

Mother Noise by Cindy House design by Catherine Casalino (Scribner / May 2022)

Sharp Edges by Leah Mol; design by Jennifer Griffiths (Doubleday Canada / August 2022)

Till the Wheels Come Off by Brad Zeller; design by Alban Fischer (Coffee House Press / July 2022)

You can read about Alban’s process for this cover at Spine Magazine.

We Move by Gurnaik Johal; design by Jack Smyth (Serpent’s Tail / April 2022)

Pink and orange — and pink and orange combinations — are definitely a thing at the moment.

Whatever Happened to the C86 Kids? by Nige Tassell; design by Steve Leard (Bonnier Books / August 2022)

Yoga by Emmanuel Carrère; design by Rodrigo Corral (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / August 2022)

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Book Covers of Note, July 2022

I’m even later than usual this month and everyone else posted their selections days ago, so you must really like book covers if you’re still jonesing for more! (And just a reminder: if you are in fact addicted to book covers and don’t want to miss any new posts, you can get them automatically sent to your inbox now. It’s not a newsletter, just magical RSS. But subscribing will confirm that you have a problem and should seek help!)

Beyond Measure by James Vincent; design by Jonathan Pelham (Faber & Faber / June 2022)

This reminded me of David Litman‘s cover for One Day by Gene Weingarten from a couple of years ago. I like both of these a lot.

Boy Friends by Michael Pedersen; design by Gray 318; illustration by Nathaniel Russell (Faber & Faber / July 2022)

(Happy belated birthday, Jon!)

Carnality by Lina Wolff; design by Tyler Comrie (Other Press / July 2022)

This is giving me strong New Directions vibes for some reason.

Denial by Jon Raymond; design by Natalia Olbinski; photograph by Robert Adams (Simon & Schuster / July 2022)

The Haunting of Hajji Hotak by Jamil Jan Kochai; design by Zak Tebbal (Viking / July 2022)

An Honest Living by Dwyer Murphy; design David Litman (Viking / July 2022)

A bit of a Saul Bass / Hitchcock thing happening at the moment…? (The cover of the Faber edition of The Premonitions Bureau by Sam Knight was designed by Jack Smyth)

Inheritance by Baynard Woods; design by Henry Sene Yee (Legacy Lit / June 2022)

Joan by Katherine J. Chen; design by Holly Ovenden (Hodder & Stoughton / July 2022)

The cover of the US edition published by Random House was designed by Lucas Heinrich:

New Waves by Kevin Nguyen; design by Zak Tebbal (One World / July 2022)

If I remember correctly, Zak Tebbal also designed cover of the hardback edition:

Other Names for Love by Taymour Soomro; design by June Park (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / July 2022)

The Pink Hotel by Liska Jacobs; design by June Park (MCD / July 2022)

Quite the contrast between these two designs!

Reward System by Jem Calder; design by Luke Bird (Faber & Faber / May 2022)

Reward System by Jem Calder; design by Alex Merto (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / July 2022)

The Status Game by Will Storr; design by Steve Leard (William Collins / July 2022)

Total by Rebecca Miller; design by Rodrigo Corral and Jared Bartman; photograph by Elinor Carucci (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / July 2022)

The Wine-Dark Sea Within by Dhun Sethna; design by Rebecca Lown (Basic Books / June 2022)

Orange covers: it’s a thing.

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Book Covers of Note, June 2022

Today is wretched and plain. And it is not the bottom, as many people may feel it is. It will get worse; we will go lower. As the Court’s dissent insists, correctly, ‘Closing our eyes to the suffering today’s decision will impose will not make that suffering disappear.

And so, with all this laid out, ugly and incontrovertible, the task for those who are stunned by the baldness of the horror, paralyzed by the bleakness of the view, is to figure out how to move forward anyway.

Because while it is incumbent on us to digest the scope and breadth of the badness, it is equally our responsibility not to despair.

These two tasks are not at odds. They are irrevocably twined. As Dahlia Lithwick wondered just a few weeks ago, after the massacre in Uvalde, another clear and awful day: ‘What does it mean, the opposing imperative of honoring the feeling of being shattered, while gathering up whatever is left to work harder?’

It means doing the thing that people have always done on the arduous path to greater justice: Find the way to hope, not as feel-good anesthetic but as tactical necessity.

Rebecca Traister, ‘The Necessity of Hope’, The Cut

Here are this month’s book covers…

After the Lights Go Out by John Vercher; design by Alex Merto (Soho Press / June 2022)

I’m not quite sure this image does justice to just how pink this pink is. (I love this cover)

Asylum by Edafe Okporo; design by Ryan Raphael (Simon & Schuster / June 2022)

A Calm & Normal Heart by Chelsea T. Hicks; design by Jaya Nicely (Unnamed Press / June 2022)

Chéri and the End of Chéri by Colette; design by Sarahmay Wilkinson (W. W. Norton / May 2022)

Cult Classic by Sloane Crosley; design by June Park (MCD / June 2022)

The Fight to Save the Town by Michelle Wilde Anderson; design by Henry Sene Yee (Avid Reader Press / June 2022)

Horse by Geraldine Brooks; design by Lynn Buckley (Viking / June 2022)

I have stopped keeping track of Lydian covers but if anyone else is still keeping score…

Jerks by Sara Lippmann; design by Ian Anderson (Mason Jar Press / March 2022)

This cover kept catching my eye on social media. Thanks to Sara for confirming the design credit.

Lapvona by Ottessa Moshfegh; design by Stephanie Ross (Penguin Press / June 2022)

For my art history friends, I believe the painting is “Agnus Dei” by Spanish Baroque artist Francisco de Zurbarán.

IIRC the cover of Moshfegh’s novel My Year of Rest and Relaxation was designed by Darren Haggar. The painting is by French Neoclassical artist Jacques-Louis David.

A Little Piece of Mind by Giles Paley-Phillips; design by Tree Abraham (Unbound / June 2022)

Nightcrawling by Leila Mottley; design by Greg Heinimann (Bloomsbury / June 2022)

Is pink the new orange?

Paradais by Fernanda Melchor; design by Oliver Munday (New Directions / May 2022)

Tree Thieves by Lyndsie Bourgon; design by Lucy Kim (Little, Brown Spark / June 2022)

Walk the Vanished Earth by Erin Swan; design by Elizabeth Yaffe (Viking / May 2022)

Ways of Being by James Bridle; design by Pablo Delcan; illustration by Jon Han (Farrar, Straus and Giroux / June 2022)

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Book Covers of Note, February 2022

Here are your February book covers of note…

Anonymous Sex edited by Hillary Jordan and Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan; design Holly MacDonald; illustration Malika Favre (The Borough Press / February 2022)

Malika Favre also designed and illustrated the cover of Playing with Matches by Michael Faudet, published by Andrews McMeel at the end of last year, and featured in this month’s ‘Book Covers We Love‘ post at Spine Magazine.

Catch the Sparrow by Rachel Rear; design by Mia Kwon (Bloomsbury / February 2022)

I like Mia Kwon’s cover for Breath Better Spent by Damaris B. Hill, published by Bloomsbury last month, too…

The Colony by Audrey Magee; design by Jack Smyth (Faber & Faber / February 2022)

The cover of the US edition, available from FSG in May, was design by Jaya Miceli:

The Delivery by Peter Mendelsund; design by Chloe Scheffe (Picador USA / February 2022)

Alex Merto‘s design for the hardcover was one of my notable book covers of the year in 2021:

The Go-Between by Osman Yousefzada; design by Gill Heeley (Canongate / January 2022)

Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century by Kim Fu; design by Jaya Miceli (Tin House / February 2022)

New Animal by Ella Baxter; design by Ami Smithson; photograph by Alfonso Vidal-Quadras (Picador / February 2022)

The fruity cover of the Australian edition published by Allen and Unwin last year was designed by Akiko Chan, while the hot pink US edition was designed in-house by Eric Obenauf at Two Dollar Radio I believe.

Path of Totality by Niina Pollari; design by Michael Salu (Soft Skull / February 2022)

The Perfect Sound by Garrett Hongo; design by John Gall (Pantheon / February 2022)

Pure Colour by Sheila Heti; design by Na Kim (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / February 2022)

The Swimmers by Julie Otsuka; design by Gabriele Wilson (Knopf / February 2022)

Very Cold People by Sarah Manguso; design by Leanne Shapton (Hogarth / February 2022)

Watergate by Garrett M. Graff; design by Alison Forner (Avid Reader Press / February 2022)

For obvious reasons, this brought to mind Paul Sahre‘s cover for the novel Watergate by Thomas Mallon from a few (10?? OMG) years back.

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Book Covers of Note, January 2022

You know, I started 2022 with such good intentions and yet here we are again at the end of January on a paved road to hell. At least there are some lovely book covers to look at this month. Sigh.

All Day is a Long Time by David Sanchez; design by Kelly Winton (Harper / January 2022)

Anatomy by Dana Schwartz; design by Kerri Resnick; illustration by Zach Meyer (Wednesday Books / January 2022)

Anthem by Noah Hawley; design by Alex Merto (Grand Central Publishing / January 2022)

The Book of Malcolm by Fraser Sutherland; design by David Drummond (Rare Machines / January 2022)

I feel like squiggly lines might be David Drummond thing…

Disaster Mon Amour by David Thomson; design by Matt Avery (Yale University Press / January 2022)

This reminded me of John Gall’s cover for The Republic of False Truths by Alaa Al Aswany, and I kind of love the juxtaposition.

Fiona and Jane by Jean Chen Ho; design and illustration by Brianna Harden (Viking / January 2022)

How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu; design by Will Staehle (William Morrow & Co. / January 2022)

Fear of Black Consciousness by Lewis R. Gordon; design by Oliver Munday (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / January 2022)

This brought to mind Greg Heinimann‘s cover for Why I’m No Longer Talking To White People About Race by Reni Eddo Lodge from a couple of years ago.

Interesting Women by Andrea Lee; design by Tristan Offit (Scribner / January 2022)

Tristan Offit also designed the cover for Red Island House by Andrea Lee, which featured in my post looking back at 2021. The paperback is out next month.

Last Resort by Andrew Lipstein; design Rodrigo Corral (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / January 2022)

Between this, and the covers of All Day is a Long Time, and Falling by T. J. Newman (designed by David Litman), I feel like we’re having a bit 1970’s revival…

Present Tense Machine by Gunnhild Øyehaug; design by Na Kim (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / January 2022)

The Raptures by Jan Carson; design by Irene Martinez Costa (Doubleday UK / January 2022)

Tenderness by Alison Macleod; design by Patti Ratchford (Bloomsbury / November 2021)

I’m sorry I missed this cover last year. November pubs are always tricky.

Patti recently posted a few of her covers from 2021 on Instagram. I like the cover of Today a Woman Went Mad in the Supermarket by Hilma Wolitzer a lot too. The vintage Austin Briggs illustration is great.

White Bull by Elizabeth Hughey; design by Alban Fischer (Sarabande Books / January 2022)

Worn by Sofi Thanhauser; design by Janet Hansen (Pantheon / January 2022)

You Don’t Know Us Negroes by Zora Neale Hurston; design by Stephen Brayda; illustration by Jessica Coppet (Amistad Books / January 2022)

Print Magazine did a piece last year on Amistad Books’ repackaging of Zora Neale Hurston’s work. I’ve featured a couple of the covers here in the past too.

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