Books, Design and Culture
Lit Hub has posted an interesting conversation between designers Pablo Delcan and Jamie Keenan. Nominally it’s a discussion of their respective US and UK covers for Ingrid Robeyns’s Limitarianism: The Case Against Extreme Wealth, but the best stuff is about the way they work and the job itself.
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Tom Gauld for The Guardian.
My ‘to be read’ wall feels particularly bad at the moment. I did, however, read an ARC of She’s a Killer by Kirsten McDougall on vacation, which is fun if you like an unreliable narrator who is not quite a genius, but very possibly a sociopath (and has an imaginary friend).
Comments closedEven though it’s still just about July — a supposedly “quiet” month in publishing — I’m running late once again. Hopefully everyone is on vacation and won’t notice that it’s basically August already and I am here sliding in under the wire. There are some great covers this month though. A bit of collage, some really nice typography, and lots of pink and red. Enjoy!
The Absolutes by Molly Dektar; design by Yeon Kim (Mariner / July 2023)
I like this cover a lot, but I’m shamelessly stealing it from Lit Hub’s most recent book cover round-up (a benefit of being last to post!), so I hope the design credit is correct because I couldn’t verify it before posting!
Beijing Sprawl by Xu Zechen; design by Andrew Walters (Two Lines Press / June 2023)
I had this noted as down as July cover, but the book was actually released in June. The cover of the Two Lines Press edition of Running Through Beijing by Xu Zechen has also been re-designed to match.
The Black Eden by Richard T. Kelly; design by Robbie Porter (Faber & Faber / July 2023)
Cat Prince by Michael Pedersen; design by Gray318 (Little, Brown / July 2023)
Jon’s design for Michael’s previous book Boy Friends, which features an illustration by Nathaniel Russell, was on last year’s notable book cover list.
The Complete Works of Álvaro de Campos by Fernando Pessoa; design by Peter Mendelsund (New Directions / July 2023)
Counterweight by Djuna; design by Tal Goretsky (Pantheon / July 2023)
Do Tell by Lindsay Lynch; design by Emily Mahon; illustration and lettering by Studio Martina Flor (Doubleday / July 2023)
Excavations by Hannah Michell; design by Arsh Raziuddin (One World / July 2023)
This reminded me of the 2017 cover of Smoke by Dan Vyleta designed by Mark Abrams with an illustration by the late Colombian artist Alejandro García Restrepo who passed away last month.
The Librarianist by Patrick DeWitt; design by Allison Saltzman (Ecco / July 2023)
Nothing Special by Nicole Flattery; design by Katya Mezhibovskaya (Bloomsbury / July 2023)
Ripe by Sarah Rose Etter; design by Natalia Olbinski; art by Angela Faustina (Scribner / July 2023)
I love pretty much everything about this cover.
Screwjack by Hunter S. Thompson; design by Math Monahan (Simon & Schuster / July 2023)
The Sea Elephants by Shastri Akella; design by Dave Litman (Flatiron Books / July 2023)
Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia; design by Regina Flath (Del Rey Books / July 2023)
I think this delivers just about everything you want from a horror / thriller cover.
Someone Who Isn’t Me by Geoff Rickly; design by Jesse Reed; art by Jesse Draxler (Rose Books / July 2023)
The Stolen Coast by Dwyer Murphy; design by Dave Litman (Viking / July 2023)
A Thread of Violence by Mark O’Connell; design by Jack Smyth (Granta / July 2023)
1 CommentHey, 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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Tom Gauld for The Guardian.
(Is this a Semisonic joke as well as an Edward Hopper one? Or am I just showing my age?)
Comments closedHey, I hope you’re safe and well wherever you are. Here’s this month’s covers post.
All the Houses I’ve Ever Lived In by Kieran Yates; design by Holly Ovenden (Simon & Schuster / April 2023)
Ballast by Quenton Baker; design by Jamie Kerry (Haymarket / April 2023)
Birchers by Matthew Dallek; design by Alex Camlin (Basic Books / March 2023)
Blue Hunger by Viola Di Grado; design by Myunghee Kwon (Bloomsbury / March 2023)
You can read about Myunghee Kwon‘s design process for the cover of Blue Hunger at Spine Magazine.
The cover for the UK and Australian edition of Blue Hunger, published by Scribe, was designed by Luke Bird (and thank you to Guy Ivison at Scribe for providing the design credit). It’s an interesting contrast I think:
Before We Were Innocent by Ella Berman; design by Colleen Reinhart (Berkley Books / April 2023)
Unfortunately I can’t read the title of this book without thinking of this…
Dr. No by Percival Everett; design by Jamie Keenan (Influx Press / March 2023)
Greek Lessons by Han Kang; design by Anna Kochman (Hogarth / April 2023)
The Illiterate by Ágota Kristóf; design by Oliver Munday (New Directions / April 2023)
This made me think of Joan Miró drawings.
Ninth Building by Zou Jingzhi; design by Eric C. Wilder (Open Letter / April 2023)
Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld; design by Cassie Gonzalez (Random House / April 2023)
The cover of the UK edition of Romantic Comedy, published by Transworld, was designed by Richard Ogle.
Soft Animal by Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan; design by Ahlawat Gunjan (Penguin India / April 2023)
Tell Me an Ending by Jo Harkin; design by Jaya Miceli (Scribner / January 2024)
While Supplies Last by Anita Lahey; design by David Drummond (Signal Editions / April 2023)
You can see the images David combined for this cover here.
Comments closedI hope you’re keeping safe and well. There’s quite a nice mix of covers this month (I think?). There’s some fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Some paperbacks and some hardcovers. Inevitably there are books from the big folks in NYC, but there’s also some indie titles, and a couple of covers from the UK. There is even some Canadian content for those of you who care about that sort of thing.1
Bariloche by Andrés Neuman; design by Alban Fischer (Open Letter / March 2023)
Checkout 19 by Claire-Louise Bennett; design by Stephanie Ross (Riverhead / February 2023)
Does this qualify for the ‘well-dressed and distressed’ trend? Or is this more like an ‘everyone is tired’ thing?
The cover of the hardback edition of Checkout 19 published last year was designed by Jaya Miceli with art by Kristine Moran.
Commitment by Mona Simpson; design by Kelly Blair; art by Lee Heinen (Knopf / March 2023)
Crying Wolf by Eden Boudreau; design by Michel Vrana (Book*hug Press / March 2023)
The Flowers of Buffoonery by Osamu Dazai; design by Rodrigo Corral (New Directions / March 2023)
This is the third Rodrigo Corral cover for New Direction’s editions of Dazai. I’m curious — can anyone can tell me the typeface? UPDATE: it’s not a typeface, it’s lettering! Thanks to Erik at New Directions for letting me know (and for sending the final cover)!
Oh and if you’re curious about the enduring popularity of Dazai (who died in 1948), Andrew Martin wrote a piece about it for the the New York Times.
Halal Sex by Sheima Benembarek; design by Jennifer Griffiths (Viking Canada / March 2023)
Hospital by Han Song; design by Will Staehle (Amazon Crossing / March 2023)
Island City by Laura Adamczyk; design by Jennifer Heuer (FSG Originals / March 2023)
The Natural Hustle by Eva H.D.; design by Talia Abramson (McClelland & Stewart / March 2023)
Now I Am Here by Childi Ebere; design by Lucy Scholes; illustration by Ben Wiseman; type by Matt Willey (Picador / March 2023)
Poverty by Matthew Desmond; design by Christopher Brand (Crown / March 2023)
Spilt Milk by Amy Beashel; design by Emma Rogers (HarperCollins / March 2023)
To Battersea Park by Philip Hensher; design by Jo Thomson (Fourth Estate / March 2023)
Can this start a dogs on book covers trend?
Trace Evidence by Charif Shanahan; design by Beth Steidle (Tin House / March 2023)
If one of the fine folks at Tin House would like to send me a higher quality image, I’ll be glad to add it in! Thanks to the fine folks at Tin House for sending over the cover!
Voyager by Nona Fernández; design by Kapo Ng (Graywolf Press / February 2023)
The Woman with the Cure by Lynn Cullen; design by Vikki Chu (Berkley / February 2023)
Zig-Zag Boy by Tanya Frank; design by Emma Pidsley (William Collins / March 2023)
The cover of the US edition of Zig-Zag Boy, published by W. W. Norton this month, was designed by Alicia Tatone with art by Pedro Covo.
I hope you’re all safe and well. Here are the book covers that caught the attention this month…
B.F.F. by Christie Tate; design by Ben Wiseman (Avid Reader Press / February 2023)
Big Swiss by Jen Beagin; design Jaya Miceli; art by Anna Weyant (Scribner / February 2023)
Brutes by Dizz Tate; design by Nicole Caputo (Catapult / February 2023)
Couplets by Maggie Millner; design by June Park (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / February 2023)
The cover of the UK edition of Couplets was designed by Kishan Rajani for Faber. It’s interesting that both covers use vertical type.
Dominion (50th Anniversary Edition) by Tom Holland; design by David Pearson (Abacus / February 2023)
8 Rules of Love by Jay Shetty; design by Rodrigo Corral (Simon & Schuster / January 2023)
The Employees by Olga Ravn; design by Paul Sahre (New Directions / February 2023)
The back cover is also rad… (thanks to Erik at New Directions for sending it over!)
I have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai; design by Elizabeth Yaffe (Viking / February 2023)
The Laughter by Sonora Jha; design by Alicia Tatone; art by Vartika Sharma (Harpervia / February 2023)
River Sing Me Home by Eleanor Shearer; design by Vi-An Nguyen; illustration by Jessica Cruickshank (Berkley Books / January 2023)
Sam by Allegra Goodman; design by Donna Cheng; photograph by Mariam Sitchinava (Dial Press / January 2023)
I’m not sure exactly why, but I just assumed this was a UK cover when I first saw it (despite it literally having “New York Times Bestselling Author” in all-caps at the top!).
The Shutter of Snow by Emily Holmes Coleman; design by Pete Adlington; illustration by Bill Bragg (Faber / February 2023)
Sing, Nightingale by Marie Hélène Poitras; translated by Rhonda Mullins ; design by Ingrid Paulson (Coach House / February 2023)
For some reason this makes me think of the ‘weird nature’ (including animals with human eyes!) in Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer, which is still one of my favourite novels of the last 10 years…
True Life by Adam Zagajewski; design by Jeff Clark (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / February 2023)
Tunnel 29 by Helena Merriman; design by Pete Garceau (PublicAffairs / January 2023)
I also saw Pete Garceau’s cover for School House Burning by Derek W. Black recently, which snuck past me when it was published by PublicAffairs in September 2020 but still seems terribly au courant…
Wolfish by Erica Berry; design by Keith Hayes; illustration by Rokas Aleliunas (Flatiron / February 2023)
Coincidentally, Rokas Aleliunas’s website is casualpolarbear.com.
Comments closedA bit of a quick and dirty post for a wet and dirty January. Sorry.
Age of Vice by Deepti Kapoor; design by Gregg Kulick (Riverhead Books / January 2023)
Bad Cree by Jessica Johns; design Emily Mahon (Doubleday / January 2023)
The Bandit Queens by Parini Shroff; design by Elena Giavaldi (Ballantine Books / January 2023)
This made me think of the opening credits to a movie from the 1960s. I think it’s partly the type, but the colours also reminded me of Maurice Binder’s title sequence of Charade. Maybe it’s more of the overall vibe than anything else?
The Deluge by Stephen Markley; design by Matt Dorfman (Simon & Schuster / January 2023)
I’m not sure why exactly, but this feels like a very Matt Dorfman cover. The ripped paper perhaps?
Different Sound selected and introduced by Lucy Scholes; design by Jo Walker (Pushkin Press / January 2023)
Fieldwork by Iliana Regan; design by Morgan Krehbiel (Agate / January 2023)
Life on Delay by John Hendrikson; design by Oliver Munday (Knopf / January 2023)
Maame by Jessica George; design by Olga Grlic; art by Michelle Durbano (St. Martin’s Press / January 2023)
The New Life by Tom Crewe; design by Jaya Miceli (Scribner / January 2023)
Interestingly, the cover of the UK edition published by Chatto & Windus uses the same photograph but it’s flipped the other way and printed on one of those fancy half dust jackets (forgive me for not remembering their technical name). I believe the design is by Kris Potter.
Really Good, Actually by Monica Heisey; design by Mumtaz Mustafa; art by Sari Shryack (William Morrow & Co / January 2023)
The cover of the UK edition published by Fourth Estate was designed by Jo Thomson. It’s interesting to see the same basic concept executed in two very different styles.
A Sensitive Person by Jáchym Topol; design by Jenny Volvovski (Yale University Press / January 2023)
The cover of Granta edition The Devil’s Workshop by Jáchym Topol designed by Telegramme Studios was on my list of favourite covers back in 2013 (there were some great covers published that year!). Interesting that the colour palettes are similar.
The Terrible Event by David Cohen; design by Design by Committee (Transit Lounge / January 2023)
Comments closedI should, at this point, rename this post “Young Adult Book Covers I Saw Last Year, Quite Liked, and Could Find Some Credits For.” It would be accurate.
December turned out to be really busy. It is every year. I’m not sure why it still catches me out. That said, 2022 did seem to be especially busy for reasons far, far too boring to get into here (yes, I got sick amongst other things).
I had thought, in fact, that it might be time to retire this particular annual post. But then I looked around to see what other YA cover lists had been posted and… well, it wasn’t great. If I don’t do it, who will?
This year’s list — like last year’s — is full of illustrated covers. It seems to be the dominant trend, and I would really like someone more knowledgeable than me to profile some of the illustrators and put their work in its proper context. Maybe there is an art book in it for an enterprising publisher, if there isn’t one already? There are so many great covers from the past couple of years to choose from. 1
Anyway, I hope you enjoy this very late look at some of the YA covers of 2022. Feel free to leave your thoughts below.
The Agathas by Kathleen Glasgow and Liz Lawson; design by Alison Impey; art by Spiros Halaris (Delacorte Press / May 2022)
Ain’t Burned All the Bright by Jason Reynolds and Jason Griffin; art by Jason Griffin (Atheneum Books / January 2022)
Anatomy by Dana Schwartz; design by Kerri Resnick; illustration by Zach Meyer (Wednesday Books / January 2022)
As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow by Zoulfa Katouh; art by David Curtis (Little, Brown BYR / September 2022)
Blood and Moonlight by Erin Beaty; design by Veronica Mang; art by Sasha Vinogradova (Farrar, Straus & Giroux BYR / June 2022)
The Chandler Legacies by Abdi Nazemian; design by Corina Lupp; art by Natalie Shaw (Balzer & Bray / February 2022)
Cursed by Marissa Meyer; design by Rich Deas; art by Tim O’Brien (Feiwel & Friends / November 2022)
The same creative team produced the cover of Gilded by Marissa Meyer published last year:
The Dragon’s Promise by Elizabeth Lim; design by Alison Impey; art by Tran Nguyen; lettering by Alix Northrup (Alfred A. Knopf BYR / August 2022)
The cover of Six Crimson Cranes by Elizabeth Lim was on last year’s list.
The Drowned Woods by Emily Lloyd-Jones; design by Jenny Kimura; art by SPIDER MONEY (Little, Brown BYR / August 2022)
Echoes and Empires by Morgan Rhodes; design by Kristie Radwilowicz; art by Leilani Bustamante (Razorbill / January 2022)
Extasia by Claire Legrand; design by Joel Tippie; art by Diego Fernandez (Katherine Tegen Books / February 2022)
A Far Wilder Magic by Allison Saft; design by Kerri Resnick; art by Em Allen (Wednesday Books / March 2022)
Gallant by V. E. Schwab; art by David Curtis (Greenwillow Books / March 2022)
The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axie Oh; design by Rich Deas; art by Kuri Huang (Feiwel & Friends / February 2022)
HopePunk by Preston Norton; design Mary Claire Cruz; art by Adams Carvalho (Little, Brown BYR / January 2022)
Hotel Magnifique by Emily J. Taylor; design by Kristie Radwilowicz; art by Jim Tierney (Razorbill / April 2022)
If You Could See the Sun by Ann Liang; design by Gigi Lau; art by Carolina Rodriguez Fuenmayor (Inkyard Press / October 2022)
The Last Laugh by Mindy McGinnis; design by Erin Fitzsimmons; art by Corey Brickley (Katherine Tegen Books / March 2022)
Mindy McGinnis’s backlist titles The Female of the Species and The Initial Insult were also re-jacketed in the same style:
A Magic Steeped in Poison by Judy I Lin; design by Rich Deas; art by Sija Hong (Feiwel & Friends / March 2022)
The sequel, A Venom Dark and Sweet, was published in August with a cover from the same creative team:
Only a Monster by Vanessa Len; design by Jessie Gang; art by Eevien Tan (HarperTeen / February 2022)
Queen of the Tiles by Hanna Alkaf; design by Sarah Creech; art by Leonardo Santamaria (Salaam Reads / April 2022)
The Restless Dark by Erica Waters; design by Jenna Stempel-Lobell; art by Tran Nguyen (HarperTeen / October 2022)
Road of the Lost by Nafiza Azad; design by Sonia Chaghatzbanian (Margaret K. McElderry Books / October 2022)
A Scatter of Light by Malinda Lo; design by Anna Booth; art by Feifei Ruan (Dutton BYR / October 2022)
The Secrets We Keep by Cassie Gustafson; design by Krista Vossen; art by beatriz ramo (Simon & Schuster BYR / November 2022)
Sofi and the Bone Song by Adrienne Tooley; design by Sonia Chaghatzbanian; art by Mona Finden (Margaret K. McElderry Books / April 2022)
Strike the Zither by Joan He; design by Aurora Parlagreco; art by Kuri Huang (Roaring Brook Press / October 2022)
Sugar by Carly Nugent; design by Imogen Stubbs; art by gozitive (Text Publishing / March 2022)
Sugaring Off by Gillian French; design by Aurora Parlagreco; art by Elena Masci (Algonquin YR / November 2022)
This Is Why They Hate Us by Aaron H. Aceves; design by Laurent Linn; art by Goni Montes (Simon & Schuster BYR / August 2022)
This Place is Still Beautiful by XiXi Tian; design by Jessie Gang; art by Robin Har (Balzer & Bray / June 2022)
A Thousand Steps into the Night by Traci Chee; design by Celeste Knudsen; art by Kotaro Chiba (Clarion Books / March 2022)
Trigger by N. Griffin; art by Dan Burgess (Atheneum Books / March 2022)
This reminded me of Dan Burgess’s art for Red Wolf by Rachel Vincent from last year. The lesson is, spectral trees are very spooky.
We All Fall Down by Rose Szabo; design by Aurora Parlagreco; art by Corey Brickley (Farrar, Straus & Giroux BYR / June 2022)
We Deserve Monuments by Jas Hammonds; design by Beth Clark and Sarah Kaufman; art by Laylie Frazier (Roaring Brook Press / November 2022)
The Weight of Blood by Tiffany D. Jackson; design by Erin Fitzsimmons; art by Jeff Manning (Katherine Tegen Books / September 2022)
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Founded by designers Jon Gray and Jamie Keenan, the Academy of British Cover Design (ABCD) held its first book cover design competition in 2014. To celebrate its tenth awards ceremony this year (where does the time go?), the Academy has decided to allow regular folks to vote for a ‘Winner of All Winners’ from the last nine years – ABCD X.
Committed to making the awards to be as inclusive as possible, ABCD includes categories that frequently get overlooked by other competitions, and the work itself is judged by book cover designers themselves, so there is a diverse selection of winning cover to choose from including children’s books, science fiction and fantasy, series design and non-fiction.
Entries to this year’s regular competition, ABCD’23, are also now open.
The winners of both ABCD X and ABCD’23 with be announced at an awards ceremony on the 23 March.
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