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Notable YA Covers of 2023

Happy New Year! I hope you’re safe and well. As is now the tradition, the first post of the year is a look back at some of the young adult covers of last year. The usual caveats apply of course. Not much YA crosses my desk at work, which is mostly indie publishing, and it is not a category I follow closely apart from what my kids are reading, so my insight here is limited. Still, I think at some of the stuff I wrote about the industry in my 2023 post on adult covers probably holds true for YA too. The toll of the past few years has led to a certain amount of risk aversion from both publishers and designers (albeit for different reasons), and my sense is that folks are bracing for more of the same in 2024. I would guess that genre expectations within the broader YA category have limited the room for experimentation too. Some things need to look the same it seems. But even if there is some conservatism in the current design approaches (if it ain’t broke…), and things in general feel pretty grim, there is a remarkable amount of diversity and representation on the covers of YA books — and perhaps even among the designers and illustrators themselves — and that feels like something that should be celebrated. I’ve tried my best to get all the credits for the covers, but please let me know if I missed anyone out — I’ll be happy to update the post where necessary.

All That’s Left To Say by Emery Lord; art direction by Jeanette Levy; illustration by Adele Leyris (Bloomsbury YA / July 2023)

All the Fighting Parts by Hannah V. Sawyer; design by Micah Fleming; illustration by Rachelle Baker (Harry N. Abrams / September 2023)

Ander & Santi Were Here by Jonny Garza Villa; design by Kerri Resnick; illustration by Max Reed (Wednesday Books / May 2023)

Champion of Fate by Kendare Blake; design by David Curtis; art by Tomasz Majewski (Quill Tree Books / September 2023)

Curious Tides by Pascale Lacelle; design by Greg Stadnyk; illustration by Signum Noir (Margaret K. McElderry Books / October 2023)

Daughters of Oduma by Moses Ose Utomi; design by Greg Stadnik; illustration by Laylie Frazier (Atheneum Books for Young Readers / February 2023)

A Door in the Dark by Scott Reintgen; design by Greg Stadnik; illustration by Bose Collins (Margaret K. McElderry Books / March 2023)

Ever Since by Alena Bruzas; design by Kristie Radwilowicz; art by Suzanne Dias (Rocky Pond Books / May 2023)

Everyone’s Thinking It by Aleema Omotoni; design by Corina Lupp; illustration by Otesanya (Balzer & Bray / September 2023)

Flowerheart by Catherine Bakewell; design by Catherine Lee; illustration by Yejin Park (Harperteen / March 2023)

The Girl Next Door by Cecilia Vinesse; design by Erin Fitzsimmons; art by Tomasz Majewski (Quill Tree Books / May 2023)

Goddess Crown by Shade Lapite; design by Maria T. Middleton; art by Jeff Manning (Walker Books / September 2023)

Her Radiant Curse by Elizabeth Lim; art direction by Angela Carlino; art by Tran Nguyen; lettering by Alix Northrup (Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers / August 2023)

Tran Nguyen and Alix Northrup also worked on the covers for Elizabeth Lim’s previous books Six Crimson Cranes and The Dragon’s Promise, which appeared on the 2021 and 2022 lists respectively.

A Hundred Vicious Turns by Lee Page O’Brien; design by Micah Fleming; illustration by Corey Brickley (Harry N. Abrams / September 2023)

This is the first of many covers featuring Corey Brickley’s lovely work on the list!

I feed Her to the Beast and the Beast is Me by Jamison Shea; design by Kathleen Breitenfeld; art by Rich Deas; lettering by Jordan Metcalf (Henry Holt BYR / August 2023)

I Will Find You Again by Sarah Lyu; design by Laura Eckes (Simon & Schuster BYR / March 2023)

Immortality by Dana Schwartz; design by Kerri Resnick; illustration by Zach Meyer (Wednesday Books / February 2023)

The cover for Anatomy by Dana Schwartz was on last year’s list. I wonder what vital organ shaped dress we will get next?

In Limbo by Deb JJ Lee; design by Kirk Benshoff; art by Deb JJ Lee (First Second / March 2023)

Invisible Son by Kim Johnson; art by Chuck Styles (Random House BYR / June 2023)

The Isle of the Gods by Amie Kaufman; design Angela Carlino; art by Aykut AydoÄŸdu (Alfred A. Knopf BYR / May 2023)

The Lake House by Sarah Beth Durst; design by Catherine Lee; illustration by Elena Masci (Harperteen / April 2023)

The Last Girls Standing by Jennifer Dugan; design by Kelley Brady; illustration by Michael Rogers (G.P. Putnam’s Sons BYR / August 2023)

Coincidentally these two covers combined would have a complete face…

Never a Hero by Vanessa Len; design by Jessie Gang; art by Eevien Tan (Harperteen / August 2023)

The cover for Only a Monster by Vanessa Len was also on last year’s list.

Nigeria Jones by Ibi Zoboi; design by Jenna Stempel-Lobell; art by Nettrice Gaskins (Balzer & Bray / May 2023)

Night’s Edge by Liz Kerin; design by Katie Klimowicz (Tor Nightfire / June 2023)

(Technically this isn’t YA, it’s categorized as “Fiction / Coming of Age,” but I figure there’s crossover here so I’m including it anyway)

The Only Girl in Town by Ally Condie; design by Theresa Evangelista (Dutton BYR / September 2023)

Painted Devils by Margaret Owen; design by Rich Deas; art by M.S. Corley (Henry Holt / May 2023)

Rook by William Ritter; design by Laura Williams; illustration by Corey Brickley (Algonquin YR / August 2023)

Algonquin also reissued the whole Jackaby series in paperback with new covers to match:

The Scarlet Alchemist by Kylie Lee Baker; design by Kathleen Oudit & Gigi Lau; photography Lillian Liu (Inkyard Press / October 2023)

She Is a Haunting by Trang Thanh Tran; design by Thy Bui; illustration by Elena Masci (Bloomsbury YA / Feburary 2023)

Something Like Possible by Miel Moreland; design by Julia Bianchi; illustration by Bex Glendining (Feiwel & Friends / May 2023)

The Space Between Here and Now by Sarah Suk; design by David Curtis (Quill Tree Books / October 2023)

The Spirit Bares Its Teeth by Andrew Joseph White; illustration by Evangeline Gallagher (Peachtree Teen / September 2023)

Evangeline Gallagher also provided the cover illustration for Andrew Joseph White’s previous book Hell Followed With Us.

Threads That Bind by Kika Hatzopoulou; design by Kristie Radwilowicz; illustration by Corey Brickley (Razorbill / May 2023)

The Twenty-One by Elizabeth Rusch; design by Paul Zakris; illustration by Will Staehle (Greenwillow Books / September 2023)

The Voice Upstairs by Laura E. Weymouth; design by Debra Sfetsios-Conover; illustration by Marcela Bolivar (Margaret K. McElderry Books / October 2023)

Warrior Girl Unearthed by Angeline Boulley; design by Rich Deas; art by Michaela Goade (Henry Holt / May 2023)

Where There’s Smoke by E. B. Vickers; design by Ray Shappell (Alfred A. Knopf BYR / December 2023)

Wise Creatures by Deirdre Sullivan; design by Nick Stearn; illustration by Corey Brickley (Hot Key Books / September 2023)

Zhara by S. Jae-Jones; design by Kerri Resnick; illustration by Sija Hong (Wednesday Books / August 2023)

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Make Meatballs Sing: The Life and Art of Corita Kent

Available this month from Brooklyn-based independent children’s book publisher Enchanted Lion, Make Meatballs Sing by Matthew Burgess and illustrated by Kara Kramer is a new picture book about the life and work of the innovative and unconventional artist, educator and social justice advocate Corita Kent (1918–1986).

Matthew Burgess is the author of Enormous Smallness: A Story of E. E. Cummings, illustrated by Kris Di Giacomo, and last year’s Drawing on Walls: A Story of Keith Haring, illustrated by Josh Cochran, also available from Enchanted Lion.

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Book Covers of Note, March 2021

Spring has arrived, the clocks have gone forward, and here are some new and recent covers to wrap up your month…

Amoralman by Derek Delgaudio; design by John Gall (Knopf / March 2021)

Antonio by Beatriz Bracher; design by Janet Hansen (New Directions / March 2021)

Consent by Vanessa Springora; design by Stephen Brayda; art by Rozenn Le Gall (Harpervia / February 2021)

Fulfillment by Alex MacGillis; design by Na Kim (Farrar, Straus and Giroux / March 2021)

How to Read Numbers by Tom Chivers & David Chivers; design by Luke Bird (Weidenfeld & Nicholson / March 2021)

Last Call by Elon Green; design by Evan Gaffney (Celadon Books / March 2021)

Misplaced Persons by Susan Beale; design by Sara Marafini (John Murray / March 2021)

My Friend Natalia by Laura Lindstedt; design by Sarahmay Wilkinson (Liveright / March 2021)

Pure Gold by John Patrick McHugh; design by Jack Smyth (New Island Books / February 2021)

Recent East by Thomas Grattan; design by Alex Merto (MCD / March 2021)

Speak, Okinawa by Elizabeth Miki Brina; design by Janet Hansen (Knopf / February 2021)

Who Will Pay Reparations on My Soul by Jesse McCarthy; design by Steve Attardo (Liveright / March 2021)

Why the Innocent Plead Guilty and the Guilty Go Free by Jed S. Rakoff; design by June Park (Farrar, Straus and Giroux / February 2021)

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Book Covers of Note, September 2020

Another rather rushed update this month I’m afraid, which is especially disappointing given how many new books there out at this time of year. I’m sure I’ve missed more than a few great covers here, but hopefully I will catch them before the end of the year…

Carry by Toni Jensen; design by Emily Mahon; illustration by Carmi Grau (Ballantine / September 2020)

The Clerk by Guillermo Saccomanno; design by Alban Fischer (Open Letter Books / September 2020)

The wobbly text here reminded me of Janet Hansen’s cover for Beyond the Sea by Paul Lynch from earlier this year.

Gloria by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins; design by Mark Melnick (Theatre Communications Group / August 2020)

Howdunit edited by Martin Edwards; design by Steve Leard (HarperCollins / September 2020)

You can see the rubber stamp Steve used for this design on Instagram.

The Hype Machine by Sinan Aral; design by Steve Leard (HarperCollins / September 2020)

Lobizona by Romina Garber; design by Kerri Resnick; illustation by Daria Hlazatova (Wednesday Books / August 2020)

Ordinary Matter by Laura Elvery; design by Design by Committee (University of Queensland Press / September 2020)

The gradient and colour palette reminded me of the cover for Sensation Machines  by Adam Wilson, designed by David Litman, featured in July.  

Reading While Black by Esau McCaulley; design by David Fassett (IVP Academic / September 2020)

Red Pill by Hari Kunzru; design by John Gall (Knopf / September 2020)

This cover is bonkers. The cover of the UK edition of Red Pill published by Scribner (also bonkers but in a different, laser eyes, way), was designed by Craig Fraser.

Strange Flowers by Donal Ryan; design by Owen Gent (Doubleday / August 2020)

This is very pretty. Obviously.

These Vengeful Hearts by Katherin Laurin; design Elita Sidiropoulou (Inkyard Press / September 2020)

The Topeka School by Ben Lerner; design by Gray318 (Granta / September 2020)

When My Body Was a Clinched Fist by Enzo Silon Surin; design Zoe Norvell; painting by Carlos Rancaño (Black Lawrence Press / July 2020)

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Franz Kafka Illustration by Matt Willey

I love this illustration for the June 29 issue of The New Yorker magazine by Matt Willey. It accompanies ‘The Rescue Will Begin in Its Own Time‘, a series of short pieces by Franz Kafka that have not been published in English before, and that will appear this fall in the New Directions book The Lost Writings.

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Book Covers of Note, May 2020

A quick update this month. Enjoy…

The Book of Eels by Patrick Svensson; design by Grady McFerrin (Ecco / May 2020)

Broadway for Paul by Vincent Katz; design by Janet Hansen; photograph by Beat Streuli (Knopf / April 2020)

Brown Album by Porochista Khakpour; design by Joan Wong (Vintage / May 2020)

This cover immediately reminded me of Helen Crawford-White’s cover A Half-Baked Idea by Olivia Potts published last year…

And then I thought maybe it was a nod to the cover of The White Album by Joan Didion, published in 1979 (the reissue below uses the original cover), and which Fonts in Use informs me uses the typeface Pistilli Roman. But maybe I am over thinking it…?

I was also reminded of these two recent covers, so maybe it is just a thing…?

A Children’s Bible by Lydia Millet; design by David High (W. W. Norton / May 2020)

Lydian for Lydia…

The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio; design by Matthew Flute (McClelland & Stewart / April 2020)

I believe this is only available as an ebook, which seems a bit of shame. It would be nice to see in print. The cover does remind me of something else though. I can’t think what exactly. The best I could come up with was Tyler Comrie‘s cover for The Unwanted by Michael Dobbs. But I feel like there is cover that does something similar with a painting as a background? Possibly I’m just imagining it.

Oh and for those of you who are interested, the design team at Penguin Random House Canada have started posting their work to Instagram as one_last_tweak.

Fracture by André Neuman; design by June Park (Farrar Straus & Giroux / May 2020)

Hood Feminism by Mikki Kendall; design by Lynn Buckley (Viking / February 2020)

Minor Detail by Adania Shibli; design by Oliver Munday (New Directions / May 2020)

Out of the Shadows by Walt Odets; design by Tom Etherington; photograph by Wolfgang Tillmans (Penguin / May 2020)

I love this image. I believe it was used on the cover of the hardcover in the UK too.

Pelosi by Molly Ball; design by Adalis Martinez (Henry Holt & Co / May 2020)

Pew by Catherine Lacey; design by Luke Bird (Granta / May 2020)

Pew and Pelosi make lovely use of white space…

A Registry of My Passage Upon The Earth by Daniel Mason; design by Gregg Kulick (Little, Brown & Co / May 2020)

Someone Who Will Love You in All Your Damaged Glory by Raphael Bob-Waksberg; design by Linda Huang (Vintage / May 2020)

The cover of the hardcover was designed by Tyler Comrie, with an illustration by Justin Metz 

Very Important People by Ashley Mears; design by Amanda Weiss (Princeton University Press / May 2020)

Walking One Step at a Time by Erling Kagge; design by Linda Huang and Oliver Munday (Vintage / April 2020)

This reminded me Gerhard Richter’s blurry landscape paintings.

The hardcover was designed by Jenny Carrow.

Wicked Enchantment by Wanda Coleman; design by Rachel Willey (Black Sparrow Press / April 2020)

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Book Covers of Note, April 2020

Hey. Here are the book covers that have caught my eye online this month. I hope that they bring a little joy in this very grim time.

If you have the means to buy books at the moment (and I appreciate that is not going to be the case for everyone), please consider supporting your local bookstore. I know a lot of stores are taking orders by email even if they are not answering the phone, and many are offering local delivery if curbside pick-up is not currently an option. The situation seems to be changing daily, so if a store wasn’t accepting orders yesterday, they might be today. We are all figuring this out on the fly.

If you are in the US and don’t have access to a local bookstore, there is Bookshop.org who are trying to provide some financial support to independents. If there are similar initiatives elsewhere, let me know — I’m happy to share the link.

Afterlife by Julia Alvarez; design by Jaya Miceli (Algonquin Books / April 2020)

Barn 8 by Deb Olin Unferth; design by Kimberly Glyder (Graywolf / March 2020)

The Beauty of Your Face by Sahat Mustafah; design by Grace Han (W.W. Norton / April 2020)

Becoming George Orwell by John Rodden; design by Monograph / Matt Avery; illustration by Lauren Nassef (Princeton University Press / February 2020)

I wonder where the eye — particularly the combination of the colour red and the eye — as a symbol of Orwell and Nineteen Eighty-Four originated? Does it go back to the 1960s and the Penguin paperback designed by Germano Facetti?

I understand that the eye is a short-hand for the surveillance state. But it is almost as if that is now considered the only element of the book worth visualizing (David Pearson’s cover is in an interesting exception in that it cleverly focuses on censorship rather than surveillance).

I haven’t read Nineteen Eighty-Four in years, but my memory is that the infamous “Big Brother is Watching You” poster is a face whose eyes seem to follow you when you move — something I think Matt’s cover above captures quite nicely — not an all-seeing, omniscient eye. The first time I read the novel, I imagined Big Brother looked something like Lord Kitchener / Uncle Sam in the recruitment posters. I was more traumatized by Room 101 to be honest… Has anyone put rats on the cover of Nineteen Eighty-Four?

The Book of Longings by Sue Monk Kidd; design by Sara Wood (Viking / April 2020)

Los Falcón by Melissa Rivero; design by Adalis Martinez (Vintage Espanol / April 2020)

The cover of the English-language US edition published by Ecco last year was designed by Allison Saltzman with lettering by Boyoun Kim.

Godshot by Chelsea Bieker; design by Nicole Caputo (Catapult / March 2020)

I actually read Godshot in manuscript form last year and liked it a lot. It is set in drought-stricken California, but I had Ry Cooder’s soundtrack to Paris, Texas playing in my head the whole time I was reading it.

I also wanted to give a quick shout-out to Nicole who was diagnosed with breast cancer at the end of last year and bravely shared her story on social media recently. Stay safe, and get well soon, Nicole. :-)

Grief by Svend Brinkmann; design by David A. Gee (Polity Press / April 2020)

David has designed the covers for a number of books by Svend Brinkmann, including Standpoints, which featured on the blog back in March 2018.

Hinton by Mark Blacklock; design by Jamie Keenan (Granta / April 2020)

Inkheart by Cornelia Funke; cover art by Karl J Mountford (Chicken House / April 2020)

Mountford has also created covers for the other two books in the series, Inkspell and Inkdeath. I love these.

A Luminous Republic by Andrés Barba; design by Mark R. Robinson; illustration by Carly Miller (Mariner Books / April 2020)

The cover of the UK edition of A Luminous Republic, which Granta is publishing in a couple of months, was designed by Luke Bird. It’s a really interesting contrast!

Misconduct of the Heart by Cordelia Strube; design by Michel Vrana (ECW Press / April 2020)

Sigh, Gone by Phuc Tran; design Henry Sene Yee (Flatiron Books / April 2020)

This is Shakespeare by Emma Smith; design by Linda Huang (Pantheon / March 2020)

Throat by Ellen van Neerven; by design by Design by Committee / Josh Durham (University of Queensland Press / April 2020)

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Book Covers of Note, January 2020

A very quick post this month as it is almost next month (again)…

Agency by William Gibson; design by Gray318 (Berkley / January 2020)

Jon also designed the new cover for the Berkley reprint edition Gibson’s previous novel The Peripheral.

The cover of the UK edition of Agency, published by Viking this month, was designed by Chris Bentham:

The Art of War by Sun Tzu; design by Jaya Miceli (W. W. Norton / January 2020)

A Beautiful Crime by Christopher Bolen; design by Milan Bozic (HarperCollins / January 2020)

Cleanness by Garth Greenwell; design by Thomas Colligan; photograph by Jack Davison (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / January 2020)

As I mentioned in my 2019 round-up, the cover of the UK edition, published by Picador this month, was designed by Ami Smithson and features black and white photograph by Mark McKnight.

Dark Mother Earth by Kristian Novak; design by Kimberly Glyder (Amazon Crossing / January 2020)

Follow Me To Ground by Sue Rainsford; design by Jaya Miceli; collage by Toon Joosen (Scribner / January 2019)

The cover of the UK edition, published by Transworld last year, was designed by Beci Kelly.

The Hand on the Wall by Maureen Johnson; design by Leo Nickolls (Katherine Tegen Books / January 2020)

Leo also designed the covers to the previous books in the series…

Long Bright River by Liz Moore; design by Gregg Kulick (Riverhead / January 2020)

Oligarchy by Scarlett Thomas; design by Kelly Winton (Counterpoint / January 2020)

The cover of the UK edition, published by Canongate this month, was design by Gray318:

Small Days and Nights by Tishani Doshi; design by Sarahmay Wilkinson (W. W. Norton / January 2020)

Threshold by Rob Doyle; design by Greg Heinimann (Bloomsbury / January 2020)

Greg also designed the covers for This is the Ritual and Here Are the Young Men by Rob Doyle:

Uncanny Valley by Anna Wiener; design by Rodrigo Corral (MCD / January 2020)

Walk the Wild With Me by Rachel Atwood; design by Leo Nickolls (DAW / December 2019)

The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings; design by Kimberly Glyder (Scribner / January 2020)

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The Decade in Book Covers

There is a bit of story to this post. The short version is that I started it in 2018 to celebrate 10 years of the blog. When that deadline went whooshing past, I thought I would rework it for the end of 2019 as a look back at the decade. Now in 2020, with the risk of another deadline coming and going before I get it exactly right, I am just going to post this as it is — a collection of covers from the past 10 years1 that I quite like!

The Disappearing Spoon by Sam Kean, design by Will Staehle (Little Brown & Co. / July 2010)

Ethics of Interrogation by Michael Skerker, designed by Isaac Tobin (University of Chicago Press / May 2010)

Filthy English by Peter Silverton, design by Dan Mogford (Portobello / October 2010)

The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman, designed by Roberto de Vicq (Random House / 2010)

No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy, design by David Pearson (Picador / December 2010)

Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart, designed by Rodrigo Corral Design (Random House / September 2010)

A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan; design by Barbara deWilde (Knopf / June 2010)

Amerika by Franz Kafka, design by Peter Mendelsund (Schocken / August 2011)

Adventures in the Orgasmatron by Christopher Turner; design by Marina Drukman (Farrar, Straus & Giroux June 2011)

Fever by Sonia Shah; design by LeeAnn Falciani (Picador / June 2011)

The First Husband by Laura Dave, designed by Jaya Miceli (Penguin / May 2011)

The Information by James Gleick, designed by Peter Mendelsund (Pantheon March 2011)

Mr. Fox by Helen Oyeyemi design by Helen Yentus with Jason Booher (Riverhead / September 2011)

The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson, design by Matt Dorfman (Riverhead Books / May 2011)

After Freud Left edited by John Burnham; designed by Isaac Tobin (University of Chicago Press / May 2012)

The Dubliners by James Joyce; design by Apfel Zet (Penguin / May 2012)

Everyone Loves a Good Train Wreck by Eric G. Wilson; design by  Rodrigo Corrall, hand-lettering by Jennifer Carrow, photograph by Simon Lee (FSG March 2012)

The Flame Alphabet by Ben Marcus; design by Peter Mendelsund (Knopf / January 2012)

Hope: A Tragedy: A Novel by Shalom Auslander; design by John Gall (Riverhead / January 2012)

May We Be Forgiven by A. M. Homes; designed by Alison Forner (Viking / September 2012)

NW by Zadie Smith; design by Gray318 (Hamish Hamilton / September 2012)

First Novel by Nicholas Royle; design by Suzanne Dean; photography Stephen Banks (Cape / February 2013)

The Flamethrowers by Rachel Kushner; design by Charlotte Strick (Scribner / April 2013)

The Hamlet Doctrine by Simon Critchley & Jamieson Webster; design by David A. Gee (Verso September 2013)

Lionel Asbo by Martin Amis; design by Jamie Keenan (Vintage / May 2013)

Middle C by William Gass; Design by Gabriele Wilson (Knopf / March 2013)

Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell; design by David Pearson (Penguin / January 2013)

The Wasteland by T.S. Eliot; design by Jamie Keenan (Liveright Classics / September 2013)

What the Family Needed by Steven Amsterdam; design by Jennifer Heuer (Riverhead / March 2013)

All Our Names by Dinaw Mengestu; design by Isabel Urbina Peña (Knopf / March 2014)

The Book of Heaven by Patricia Storace; design by Linda Huang (Pantheon / February 2014)

California by Edan Lepucki; design Julianna Lee (Little Brown & Co. / July 2014)

Fourth of July Creek by Smith Henderson; design by Allison Saltzman; illustration by Bryan Nash Gill (Ecco / June 2014)

Love Me Back by Merritt Tierce; design by Emily Mahon; illustration by Rizon Parein(Doubleday / September 2014)

Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka; design by Jamie Keenan (W. W. Norton / February 2014)

My Life in Middlemarch by Rebecca Mead; design by Elena Giavaldi (Crown / January 2014)

On Such a Full Sea by Chang-Rae Lee; design by Helen Yentus; lettering Jason Booher (Riverhead / January 2014)

Your Face in Mine by Jess Row; design by Oliver Munday (Riverhead / August 2014)

The Complete Stories by Clarice Lispector; design by Paul Sahre (New Directions / August 2015)

Hotels of North America by Rick Moody; design by Keith Hayes (Little, Brown & Co. / November 2015)

A Manual for Cleaning Women by Lucia Berlin; design by Justine Anweiler; photography Jonathan Simpson (Picador UK / September 2015)

Motorcycles I’ve Loved by Lily Brooks-Dalton; design by Rachel Willey (Riverhead / April 2015)

Munich Airport by Greg Baxter; design by Anne Twomey (Twelve Books / January 2015)

One Day in the Life of the English Language by Frank L. Cioffi; design by Chris Ferrante (Princeton University Press / March 2015)

Weathering by Lucy Wood; design by Greg Heinimann (Bloomsbury / January 2015)

The Woman Who Read Too Much by Bahiyyih Nakhjavani; design by Anne Jordan & Mitch Goldstein (Stanford University Press / April 2015)

Addlands by Tom Bullough; design by Jenny Grigg (Granta / June 2016)

The Children’s Home by Charles Lambert; design by Jaya Miceli (Scribner / January 2016)

Dialogue by Robert McKee; design by Catherine Casalino (Twelve Books / July 2016)

How Propaganda Works by Jason Stanley; design by Chris Ferrante (Princeton University Press / May 2016)

Imagine Me Gone by Adam Haslett; design by Keith Hayes (Little, Brown & Co. / May 2016)

Moonglow by Michael Chabon; design by Adalis Martinez (Harper / November 2016)

The Start of Something by Stuart Dybek; design Suzanne Dean; cover art by Marion de Man (Jonathan Cape / November 2016) 

The Summer That Melted Everything by Tiffany McDaniel; design by Allison Colpoys (Scribe / August 2016)

The Wonder by Emma Donoghue design by Kimberly Glyder (Little, Brown & Co. / September 2016)

The Age of Perpetual Light by Josh Weil; design by Nick Misani (Grove Press / September 2017)

All We Saw by Anne Michaels; design by Janet Hansen; photograph by Jouke Bos (Knopf / October 2017)

Heating & Cooling by Beth Ann Fennelly; design by Alex Merto; photograph by Gregory Reid (W.W. Norton / December 2017)

Jerzy by Jerome Charyn; design by Alban Fischer (Bellevue Literary Press / March 2017)

Priestdaddy by Patricia Lockwood; design by Rachel Willey (Riverhead / May 2017)

A Separation by Katie Kitamura; design by Jaya Miceli (Riverhead / February 2017)

Virgin and Other Stories by April Ayers Lawson; design by James Paul Jones (Granta / January 2017)

We All Love the Beautiful Girls by Joanne Proulx; design by Jennifer Griffiths (Viking / August 2017)

Bullshit Jobs by David Graeber; design by David Litman (Simon & Schuster / May 2018)

Cherry by Nico Walker; design by Janet Hansen (Knopf / August 2018)

The Comedown by Rebekah Frumkin; design by Rachel Willey (Henry Holt / April 2018)

Evening in Paradise by Lucia Berlin; design by Na Kim (Farrar, Straus and Giroux / November 2018)

The Female Persuasion by Meg Wolitzer; design by Ben Denzer (Riverhead Books / April 2018)

Liveblog by Megan Boyle; design by Nicole Caputo (Tyrant Books / September 2018)

There There by Tommy Orange; design by Suzanne Dean; art by Bryn Perrott (Harvill Secker / July 2018)

Aug 9 —  Fog by Kathryn Scanlan; design by Na Kim (Farrar Straus & Giroux MCD / June 2019)

The Dutch House by Ann Patchet; design by Robin Bilardello; painting by Noah Saterstrom (HarperCollins / September 2019)

Lanny by Max Porter; design by Jonny Pelham (Faber & Faber / March 2019)

Malina by Ingeborg Bachman; design by Peter Mendelsund (New Directions / June 2019)

Muscle by Alan Trotter; design by Gray318 (Faber & Faber / February 2019)

Sweet Days of Discipline by Fleur Jaeggy; design by Oliver Munday (New Directions / August 2019)

The Unwanted by Michael Dobbs; design by Tyler Comrie (Knopf / April 2019)

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Notable YA Covers of 2019

I always feel a bit guilty about this post. Readers seem to like it, but I don’t actually see a lot of young adult books day-to-day, so I am far too reliant on the covers people put in front of me to make it a really representative list. To make matters worse, it is now very late and very rushed. Nevertheless, there are some really great YA (and middle-grade!) covers here that I wanted to share. Feel free to tell me about all the ones I missed in the comments! Happy New Year!

All American Muslim Girl by Nadine Jolie Courtney; design by Cassie Gonzales; illustration by Carmi Grau (Farrar Straus & Giroux BYR / November 2019)

All the Bad Apples by Moïra Fowley-Doyle; design by Lindsey Andrews; photograph by Ines Rehberger (Kathy Dawson / October 2019)

The Arrival of Someday by Jen Malone; design by Jessie Gang; art by Sophia Drevenstam; lettering by Molly Jacques (HarperTeen / June 2019)

The Beholder by Anna Bright; design Michelle Taormina; art by Vault49 (HarperTeen / July 2019)

Brief Chronicle of Another Stupid Heartbreak by Adi Alsaid; design by Bora Tekogul (Inkyard Press / April 2019)

Butterfly Yellow by Thanhhà Lại; design Jenna Stempel-Lobell; art by Xuan Loc Xuan (HarperCollins / September 2019)

Children of Virtue and Vengeance by Tomi Adeyemi; design by Richard Deas, Mallory Grigg, and Kathleen Breitenfeld; art by Sarah Jones (Henry Holt / December 2019)

Courting Darkness by Robin LaFevers; design Whitney Leader-Picone; art by Billelis (HMH Books for Young Readers / February 2019)

The Dark Lord Clementine by Sarah Jean Horwitz; design Carla Weise; art Michelle Lamoreaux (Algonquin Young Readers / October 2019)

The Exact Opposite of Okay by Laura Steven; design Jenna Stempel-Lobell (HarperTeen / June 2019)

The Field Guide to the North American Teenager by Ben Philippe; design Michelle Cunningham; art by Christina Allen (Balzer & Bray / January 2019)

Forward Me Back to You by Mitali Perkins; design by Cassie Gonzales; illustration by Christian Northeast (Farrar Straus & Giroux BYR / April 2019)

Frankly in Love by David Yoon; design by Owen Gildersleeve (G. P. Putnam / September 2019)

The Girl the Sea Gave Back by Adrienne Young; design by Kerri Resnick; art by Larry Rostant (Wednesday Books / September 2019)

Girls on the Verge by Sharon Biggs Waller; design by Katie Klimowicz; lettering by The Letterettes (Henry Holt / April 2020)

Good Enough by Jen Petro-Roy; design by Liz Dresner; cover art by art Romy Blümel (Feiwel & Friends / February 2019)

The Grace Year by Kim Liggett; design by Kerri Resnick; illustration Hsiao Ron Cheng (Wednesday Books / October 2019)

The Great Unknowable End by Kathryn Ormsbee; design by Chloe Foglia; illustration by Carolina Rodriguez Fuenmayor; lettering by Danielle Davis (Simon & Schuster / March 2019)

Heroine by Mindy McGinnis; design by Erin Fitzsimmons (Katherine Tegen Books / March 2019)

Hold Still by Nina LaCour; design Samira Iravani; cover art by Adams Carvalho (Penguin / February 2019)

How to Make Friends with the Dark by Kathleen Glasgow; design Jennifer Heuer; art by Anders Rokkum (Delacorte / April 2019)

I Hope You Get This Message by Farah Naz Rishi; design by Erin Fitzsimmons; illustration by Adams Carvalho (HarperTeen / October 2019)

Hurricane Season by Nicole Melleby; design Carla Weise; art by David Litchfield (Algonquin / May 2019)

King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo; design by Ellen Duda; art by Billelis (Imprint / January 2019)

The Kingdom by Jess Rothenberg; design Helen Crawford-White (Macmillan / July 2019)

Kingdom of Souls by Rena Barron; design by Jenna Stempel-Lobell; art by Adeyemi Adegbesan (HarperTeen / September 2019)

Last Meeting of the Gorilla Club by Sara Nickerson; design Maria Fazio; illustration by Maeve Norton (Dutton Books for Young Readers / August 2019)

Let’s Call it a Doomsday by Katie Henry; design by David Curtis (Katherine Tegen / August 2019)

Maximillian Fly by Angie Sage; design David Curtis; art by Red Nose Studio (Katherine Tegen / July 2019)

Merrybegot by Julie Hearn; design and illustration by Karl James Mountford (Oxford University Press / April 2019)

The Missing Season by Gillian French; design David Curtis (HarperTeen / May 2019)

Nocturna by Maya Motayne; design by Aurora Parlagreco and Jenna Stempel-Lobell; art by Mark Van Leeuwen (Balzer & Bray / May 2019)

Of Ice and Shadows by Audrey Coulthurst; design Michelle Taormina; art by Yippiehey (Balzer & Bray / August 2019)

Other Words for Home by Jasmine Warga; design Jenna Stempel-Lobell ; art by Anoosha Syed (Balzer & Bray / May 2019)

Permanent Record by Mary H. K. Choi; design by Lizzy Bromley; illustration by gg (Simon & Schuster / September 2019)

Romanov by Nadine Brandes; design by Faceout Studio / Jeff Miller (Thomas Nelson / May 2019)

A Question of Holmes by Brittany Cavallaro; design by Katie Fitch; art by Dan Funderburgh (Katherine Tegen / March 2019)

Shadows of Winterspell by Amy Wilson; design Helen Crawford-White (Macmillan / JOctober 2019)

Six Goodbyes We Never Sent by Candace Ganger; design Kerri Resnick; illustration by Cannaday Chapman (Wednesday Books / September 2019)

The Speed of Falling Objects by Nancy Richardson Fischer; design Kai & Sunny (Inkyard Press / October 2019)

The Starlight Watchmaker by Lauren James; design by Helen Crawford-White (Barrington Stoke / July 2019)

The Strangers by Margaret Peterson Haddix; design Aurora Parlagreco; art by Anne Lambelet (Katherine Tegen / April 2019)

This Might Hurt A Bit by Doogie Horner; design by Sarah Creech; illustration by Adams Carvalho (Simon Pulse / June 2019)

The Tiger at Midnight by Swati Teerdhala; design by David Curtis; art by Michael Marsicano (Katherine Tegen / April 2019)

The Waking Forest by Alyssa Wees; design Leo Nickolls (Delacorte / March 2019)

We Are the Lost and Found by Helene Dunbar; design Nicole Hower; illustration by Adams Carvalho (Sourcebooks / September 2019)

We the Set the Dark on Fire by Tehlor Kay Mejia; design by Molly Fehr; art by Cristina Pagnoncelli (Katherine Tegen / February 2019)

Wilder Girls by Rory Power; design by Regina Flath; art by Aykut Aydogdu (Delacorte / July 2019)

With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo; design by Erin Fitzsimmons; art by Erick Davila (HarperTeen / May 2019)

York: Clockwork Ghost by Laura Ruby; design by Aurora Parlagreco; art Jie Ma (Walden Pond / June 2019)

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Book Covers of Note, July 2019

Oof, I am very late with this month’s covers post. I think it’s quite a good one though as these things go…? 


Categorically Famous by Guy Davidson; design by Michel Vrana (Stanford University Press / June 2019)

Swishy retro fonts are definitely a ‘thing’ now. In this instance I believe the font is Cabernet JF — an unofficial revival of Benguiat Caslon — which has been mentioned here before. The sans is Futura of course. I rather rashly went on record not so long ago saying Futura is a little overused on university press covers (much to the chagrin of Robert Bringhurst!), but I think it works here.     


Come Closer and Listen by Charles Simic; design by Allison Saltzman; art by Jessica Brilli (Ecco / July 2019)


Cruising by Alex Espinoza; design by Robert Bieselen (Unnamed Press / June 2019)

More swishy-swishiness. The positioning of the first “i” in “Cruising” does some work here.  


Cults by Herb Lester Associates; design and illustration Brian Rau (Herb Lester Associates / July 2019)


The Dry Heart by Natalia Ginzburg; design by Pablo Delcan (New Directions / July 2019)

Pablo also designed the cover of Ginzburg’s Happiness, as Such, also out this month from New Directions.


Expectation by Anna Hope; design by Jo Thomson (Doubleday / July 2019)


Feel Free by Nick Laird; design by Yang Kim (W.W. Norton / July 2019)


The Fell by Robert Jenkins; design by Jason Anscomb (RedDoor Press / July 2019)


The Great American Cheese War by Paul Flower; design by Dan Mogford (Farrago / June 2019)

(There is probably a post to be had of covers that feature ‘guns’ made of other things. Although I’m struggling to think of any other examples off the top of my head, so maybe I’m thinking of artworks and/or magazine covers? Or just imagining it?)


A Half-Baked Idea by Olivia Potts; design by Helen Crawford-White (Fig Tree / July 2019)


Harbart by Nabarun Bhattacharya; design by Oliver Munday (New Directions / June 2019) 


Maggie Brown & Others by Peter Orner; design by Lucy Kim (Little, Brown & Co. / July 2019)


The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead; design by Oliver Munday (Doubleday / July 2019)


Novacene by James Lovelock; design by Tom Etherington (Allen Lane / July 2019)


Radical Ritual by Neil Shister; design by Sarah Brody (Counterpoint / July 2019)


Say Say Say by Lila Savage; design by Jennifer Carrow (Knopf / July 2019)


The Travelers by Regina Porter; design by Suzanne Dean (Jonathan Cape / July 2019)

The cover of the US edition published by Hogarth last month was designed by Michael Morris.

I would have have a hard time telling you which country these covers came from if I didn’t already know. Using the US spelling “Travelers” on the UK cover confuses the issue, but I don’t think either cover looks particularly American, which is kind of interesting. Michael Morris recently discussed his version with Spine


Turbulence by David Szalay; design by Lauren Peters-Collaer (Scribner / July 2019)

The cover of the UK edition of Turbulence, published at the end of last year by Jonathan Cape, reminded me of Anne Twomey’s 2015 cover for Munich Airport by Greg Baxter…

Interestingly, the barcode on the front of the UK edition actually works. You can read an interview from earlier this year with designer Rosie Palmer about the UK cover over at Spine


Very Nice by Marcy Dermansky; design by Janet Hansen; ice rendered by Justin Metz (Knopf / July 2019)


The Weil Conjectures by Karen Olsson; design by Emma Ewbank (Bloomsbury / July 2019)

The cover of the US edition published by FSG this month was designed by Alison Forner and Thomas Colligan, with art by Jessica Halonen.


We Went to the Woods by Caite Dolan-Leach; design by Jaya Miceli (Random House / July 2019)

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Book Covers of Note, June 2019

Apparently it is June already. I’m pretty sure it’s a terrible mistake. 

Here are your book covers of note.


Aug 9 —  Fog by Kathryn Scanlan; design by Na Kim (Farrar Straus & Giroux MCD / June 2019)


Cogito by Victor Dixen; design by Jim Tierney (Collection R / May 2019)

This reminded me of something. I’m not sure exactly what. The best I could up with was Nicole Caputo‘s stripey op-art cover for Liveblog by Megan Boyle, but that’s not it at all… 


The Girl at the Door by Veronica Raimo; design by Julian Humphries (Fourth Estate / June 2019)


The Grand Dark by Richard Kadrey; design by Will Staehle (Harper Voyager / June 2019)


Lie With Me by Philippe Besson; design by Na Kim (Scribner / April 2019)


The Last Love Poem I Will Ever Write by Gregory Orr; design by Jared Oriel (W.W. Norton / June 2019)


Malina by Ingeborg Bachman; design by Peter Mendelsund (New Directions / June 2019)


Norco ’80 by Peter Houlahan; design by Jaya Miceli (Counterpoint / June 2019)


November by Jorge Galán; design by Steve Leard (Little, Brown / June 2019)

I’m starting to detect a colour scheme at work here, Steve… ;-) 


On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong; design by Darren Haggar; photograph by Sam Contis (Penguin Press / June 2019)

Are we seeing a trend for close cropped photographs of… arms? (Don’t get me wrong, these are both beautiful photographs / covers.)

Also of note in a compare-and-contrast sort of way, the cover of the UK edition of On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous published by Jonathan Cape was designed by Suzanne Dean:

 


Open Me by Lisa Locascio; design by Kelly Winton; collage by Katrien de Blauwer (Grove / June 2019)


Patsy by Nicole Dennis-Benn; design by Steve Attardo; handlettering by Sarahmay Wilkinson (Liveright / June 2019)


Silver in the Wood by Emily Tesh; design by David Curtis (Tor / June 2019)


The Social Photo by Nathan Jurgenson; design by Pablo Delcan (Verso / May 2019)


The Sun On My Head by Geovani Martins; design by Clare Skeats (Faber & Faber / June 2019)


The Ungrateful Refugee by Dina Nayeri; design by Christopher Gale (Canongate / May 2019)


The White Death by Gabriel Urza; design by Joan Wong (Nouvella / June 2019)

This reminds me (a little bit) of the Penguin English Library covers art directed by Coralie Bickford-Smith a few years ago:


William S. Burroughs and the Cult of Rock ‘n’ Roll by Casey Rae; design by Matt Avery (University of Texas Press / June 2019)

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