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Published December 18, 2020

Notable Book Covers of 2020

I didn’t blog much this year. It felt strange to be posting about something as trivial as book covers during a deadly pandemic. 2020 has been a tough year. I feel lucky that my family are safe and well, and I have kept my job and my health. I know others have not been so fortunate.

It has been hard.

I haven’t read much and I’ve struggled to keep track of new work. Toronto has been in lockdown for most of 2020. Browsing bookstores hasn’t been possible, and I didn’t spend as much time as usual trawling for covers online. Perhaps unsurprisingly, a lot of covers in this year’s post are featured here for the first time.

Looking back at last year’s post, I was apparently feeling gloomy about the state of things in 2019 too.1 If I remember correctly, I was — in the midst of everything — trying to get through sales conference, wrap up a big project before the holidays, and feeling more than a little stressed. Somehow I still managed to write a little bit about the trends I was seeing. A few things — painterly covers for example — seem to have continued into 2020. Lydian certainly hasn’t gone away. It felt so common, in fact, I stopped keeping track of individual examples. On the other hand, I did see less Avant Garde for which I am quietly grateful (although I’m not sure that’s a popular sentiment).

At The Literary Hub, Emily Temple declared 2020 to be “the year of enormous pink lady faces on book covers.” While at Spine Magazine, Viki Hendy collected together examples of covers with type around the edges. I don’t know that I have a lot to add that. There were a few new meta, books on book covers this year, which is always a delight. And I think perhaps collage might be having a moment too, which is fun. Although we may be overdoing the half-face compositions.

  • Suppose A Sentence by Brian Dillon; design by Katy Homans; art by John Stezaker (NYRB / September 2020)
  • Follow Me To Ground by Sue Rainsford; design by Jaya Miceli; collage by Toon Joosen (Scribner / January 2019)
  • The Lightness by Emily Temple; design by Ploy Siripant; art by Beth Hoeckel (William Morrow / June 2020)

There is, of course, a lag. Trends always bleed over from one year to the next. One of this year’s “big books”, Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid, which featured a bright and bold cover designed by Vi-An Nguyen, was published in the US on December 31, 2019. A lot of 2020 books have been delayed until 2021. But I wonder how the changes in the way we work and consume brought on by the pandemic — designing in isolation for an audience that is now browsing predominantly online — will change things in the next couple of years. Will we see more experimentation or less? Will there be demand for beautiful tactile objects, or will we more fully embrace digital reading experiences? There’s a lot to ponder…

Anyway, thanks to all the folks who have supported the Casual Op this year and encouraged me to keep it going. I’m sorry that I have not responded to all the emails I have received. I’m going to try to be a bit better with that in future. Hopefully there have been some silver linings for you in 2020, and you can still find some joy in a few good book covers…

Afterland by Lauren Beukes; design by Lauren Wakefield (Penguin / July 2020)

Also designed by Lauren Wakefield:

The Age of Skin by Dubravka Ugresic; design by Jack Smyth (Open Letter / November 2020)

Also designed by Jack Smyth:

All Men Want to Know by Nina Bouraoui; design by Holly Ovenden (Viking / August 2020)

Also designed by Holly Ovenden:

  • Blue Ticket by Sophie MacIntosh; design by Holly Ovenden (Hamish Hamilton / August 2020)
  • Belladonna by Anbara Salam; design Holly Ovenden (Penguin / August 2020)

Analogia by George Dyson; design by Tom Etherington; illustration by Andy Bridge (Allen Lane / August 2020)

Also designed by Tom Etherington:

Anger by Barbara H. Rosenwein; design by Alex Kirby (Yale University Press / July 2020)

Also designed by Alex Kirby:

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

Also designed by Jaya Miceli:

Black Sunday by Tola Rotimi Abraham; design Nicole Caputo (Catapult / February 2020)

Also designed by Nicole Caputo:

Nicole talks about book covers and her design process in this video for Belletrist from earlier this year.

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

Also designed by Allison Saltzman:

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

Also designed by Emily Mahon:

Cesare by Jerome Charyn; design by Elsa Mathern (No Exit Press / November 2020)

Companions by Katie M. Flynn; design by Laywan Kwan (Scout Press / March 2020)

The Complete Works of Alberto Caeiro by Fernando Pessoa; design by Peter Mendelsund (New Directions / July 2020)

You can find a recent interview with Peter at InsideHook, and he has a big new book out called The Look of the Book with David J. Alworth.

The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi; design by Grace Han (Riverhead / August 2020)

Also designed by Grace Han:

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

Sadly, Adalis unexpectedly passed away in July 2020. I only knew Adalis through her work, but she is such a huge a loss to our community. There is a GoFundMe page if you wish to donate to her family.

Also designed by Adalis Martinez:

  • losi by Molly Ball; design by Adalis Martinez (Henry Holt & Co / May 2020)
  • Dominicana by Angie Cruz’ design by Adalis Martinez (Flatiron / August 2020)
  • Love is an Ex-Country by Randa Jarrar; design by Adalis Martinez (Catapult / February 2021)

Figure It Out by Wayne Koestenbaum; design by Michael Salu (Soft Skull Press / May 2020)

Also designed by Michael Salu:

The Hole by Hiroko Oyamada; design by Janet Hansen (New Directions / October 2020)

Also designed by Janet Hansen:

Hurricane Season by Fernanda Melchor; design Jamie Keenan (New Directions / March 2020)

Also designed by Jamie Keenan:

Hysteria by Jessica Gross; design by Jaya Nicely (Unnamed Press / August 2020)

Also designed by Jaya Nicely:

  • A Certain Hunger by Chelsea G. Summers; design by Jaya Nicely (Unnamed Press / December 2020)
  • Vagablonde by Anna Dorn; design by Jaya Nicely (Unnamed Press / May 2020)

The Hour of the Star by Clarice Lispector; design by Paul Sahre (New Directions / October 2020)

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

Indelicacy by Amina Cain; design by June Park (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / February 2020)

Also designed by June Park:

  • The Family Clause by Jonas Hassen Khemiri; design by June Park (FSG / August 2020)
  • Miss Aluminum by Susanna Moore; design by June Park (FSG / April 2020)
  • The Town by Shaun Prescott; design by June Park (FSG / February 2020)

Insomnia by John Kinsella; design by Sarahmay Wilkinson (W. W. Norton / November 2020)

Also designed by Sarahmay Wilkinson:

Lakewood by Megan Giddings; design by Stephen Brayda; art by Yulia Bas (Amistad / March 2020)

Also designed by Stephen Brayda:

Notes on a Silencing by Lacy Crawford; design by Lucy Kim; photograph by Pari Dukovic (Little Brown & Co / July 2020)

Also designed by Lucy Kim:

Ledger by Jane Hirshfield; design by John Gall (Knopf / March 2020)

Also designed by John Gall:

You can find a short interview with John in which he discusses his cover for Red Pill at Bear Books, and you can read about his design process for Weather by Jenny Offill at Spine Magazine.

The Light Ages by Seb Falk; design by Richard Green (Allen Lane / September 2020)

Is it just me, or were star charts on book covers a bit of thing this year?

Life of a Klansman; design by Rodrigo Corral; illustration by Matt Buck (Farrar, Straus and Giroux / August 2020)

Also designed by Rodrigo Corral:

  • Uncanny Valley by Anna Wiener; design by Rodrigo Corral (MCD / January 2020)
  • Kraft by Jonas Lüscher; design by Rodrigo Corral (FSG / November 2020)
  • Lake Life by David James Poissant; design by Rodrigo Corral; photograph by Frederick Broden (Simon & Schuster / July 2020)

Little Eyes by Samanta Schweblin; design by Na Kim (Riverhead / May 2020)

Also designed by Na Kim:

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

Moss by Klaus Modick; design by Alban Fischer (Bellevue Literary Press / August 2020)

Alban recently talked to the folks at Faceout Books about his design for Moss, and you can read about his design process for Four By Four by Sara Mesa at Spine Magazine.

Also designed by Alban Fischer:

  • The Clerk by Guillermo Saccomanno; design by Alban Fischer (Open Letter Books / September 2020)
  • White Blood by Kiki Petrosino; design by Alban Fischer (Sarabande Books / May 2020)
  • Four by Four by Sara Mesa; design by Alban Fischer (Open Letter / May 2020)

Natural History by Carlos Fonseca; design by Pablo Delcan (Farrar, Straus and Giroux / July 2020)

Notes from an Apocalypse by Mark O’Connell; design by Matthew Young; art by Joe Webb (Granta / April 2020)

Of Color by Jaswinder Bolina; design by Jude Landry (McSweeney’s / June 2020)

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

On the Road by Jack Kerouac; design by Moker Ontwerp (De Bezige Bij / July 2020)

The Party Upstairs by Lee Conell; design by Stephanie Ross (Penguin Press / July 2020)

You can read about Stephanie’s design process for The Party Upstairs at Spine Magazine.

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

Also designed by Luke Bird:

Prosper’s Demon by K. J. Parker; design by Christine Foltzer; art by Sam Weber (Tor / January 2020)

The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue; design by Sara Wood (Little Brown & Co / July 2020)

Also designed by Sara Wood:

Rendang by Will Harris; design by David Pearson (Granta / February 2020)

Also designed by David Pearson:

  • Cover design by David Pearson and original lettering by Ken Garland

Sensation Machines by Adam Wilson; design by David Litman (Soho Press / July 2020)

Also designed by David Litman:

  • The New American by Micheline Aharonian Marcom; design Dave Litman (Simon & Schuster / August 2020)
  • We Inherit What the Fires Left by William Evans; design by David Litman (Simon & Schuster / March 2020)

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

Also designed by Henry Sene Yee

Soot by Dan Vyleta; design by Mark Swan (Weidenfeld & Nicolson / February 2020)

The Sun Collective by Charles Baxter; design Tyler Comrie (Pantheon / November 2020)

Also designed by Tyler Comrie:

  • Antkind by Charlie Kaufman; design by Tyler Comrie (Random House / July 2020)
  • American Poison by Eduardo Porter; design by Tyler Comrie (Knopf / March 2020)
  • A Burning by Megha Majumdar; design by Tyler Comrie (Knopf / June 2020)

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

Also designed by Gray318:

Too Much by Rachel Vorona Cote; design by Jennifer Carrow (Grand Central / February 2020)

Topics of Conversation by Miranda Popkey; design Sinem Erkas (Serpent’s Tail / February 2020)

You can read about Sinem’s design process for Topic of Conversation at Spine Magazine.

Untold Night and Day by Bae Suah, translated by Deborah Smith; design by  Suzanne Dean; photograph Marta Bevacqua (Jonathan Cape / January 2020)

Also designed by Suzanne Dean:

  • Sisters by Daisy Johnson; design by Suzanne Dean; photograph Simon Kerola (Jonathan Cape / August 2020)

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett; design by Lauren Peters-Collaer (Riverhead / June 2020)

Verge by Lidia Yuknavitch; design by Rachel Willey (Riverhead / February 2020)

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

Also designed by Kimberly Glyder:

  1. For those of you that don’t know, the name of the blog comes from a joke about my general lack of enthusiasm for anything. ↩
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Published August 28, 2020

Book Covers of Note, August 2020

A quick update for August…

All Men Want to Know by Nina Bouraoui; design by Holly Ovenden (Viking / August 2020)

Analogia by George Dyson; design by Tom Etherington; illustration by Andy Bridge (Allen Lane / August 2020)

The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi; design by Grace Han (Riverhead / August 2020)

Must I Go by Yiyun Li; design by Gray318 and Richard Bravery (Hamish Hamilton / August 2020)

The Last Great Road Bum by Héctor Tobar; design by Rodrigo Corral; illustration by Matt Buck (MCD / August 2020)

Life of a Klansman; design by Rodrigo Corral (Farrar, Straus and Giroux / August 2020)

I believe this illustration is also by Matt Buck.

Luster by Raven Leilani; design by Na Kim (Farrar, Straus and Giroux / August 2020)

Moss by Klaus Modick; design by Alban Fischer (Bellevue Literary Press / August 2020)

The New American by Micheline Aharonian Marcom; design Dave Litman (Simon & Schuster / August 2020)

Scabby Queen by Kirstin Innes; design by Jack Smyth (Fourth Estate / July 2020)

Sisters by Daisy Johnson; design by Suzanne Dean; photograph Simon Kerola (Jonathan Cape / August 2020)

The cover of the US edition of Sisters, published by Riverhead this month, was designed by Jaya Miceli. The painting is by Jeremy Olson. (Thank you to the folks on Twitter who helped me with this!)

You Will Never Be Forgotten by Mary South; design by Jamie Keenan (Picador / August

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Published August 5, 2020

David Pearson’s Penguin Camus

David Pearson has designed three new covers for the Penguin editions of Albert Camus’ novels The Plague, The Outsider, and The Fall. The typeface is apparently Portrait, designed by Berton Hasebe for Commercial Type, and the covers are printed on Colorplan Dapple embossed paper from G. F. Smith. The new editions were published July 30, 2020.

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Published July 23, 2020

Book Covers of Note, July 2020

And here we are… This month’s collection of book covers and occasional notes…

Antkind by Charlie Kaufman; design by Jack Smyth (Fourth Estate / July 2020)

The cover of the US edition of Antkind, published by Random House this month, was designed by Tyler Comrie.

In the Beggarly Style of Imitation by Jean Marc Ah-Sen; design by Charlotte Gray; photograph by Ally Schmaling (Nightwood Editions / April 2020)

(Because I am of a certain age, this cover immediately made me think of Lady Miss Kier and her shoes in the video for ‘Groove is in the Heart’)

Beyond the Sea by Paul Lynch; design by Janet Hansen (Farrar, Straus and Giroux / March 2020)

The End of Everything by Katie Mack; design by Tom Etherington (Allen Lane / July 2020)

The Englishman by David Gilman; design by Ben Prior (Head of Zeus / July 2020)

Fraternity by Benjamin Nugent; design by Rodrigo Corral; lettering by Michael Schmelling (Farrar, Straus and Giroux / July 2020)

Lampedusa by Steven Price; design by Ami Smithson (Picador / February 2020)

Last One Out Shut Off the Lights by Stephanie Soileau; design by Lucy Kim; photograph by Marc St. Gil (Little Brown & Co / July 2020)

Maybe someone has done this before and I didn’t notice (or, more likely forgotten), but it’s great to see a photograph from the EPA’s remarkable DOCUMERICA Project — available through the US National Archives on Flickr — on a book cover.

Natural History by Carlos Fonseca; design by Pablo Delcan (Farrar, Straus and Giroux / July 2020)

I love this cover. It reminded me Peter Mendelsund’s bonkers cover for C by Tom McCarthy:

On Nostalgia by David Berry; design by Raymond Biesinger (Coach House Books / July 2020)

The Party Upstairs by Lee Conell; design by Stephanie Ross (Penguin Press / July 2020)

The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue; design by Sara Wood (Little Brown & Co / July 2020)

The cover of the UK edition, published this month by Picador, was designed by Ami Smithson:

The Pull of the Stars, by Emma Donoghue

Putin’s People by Catherine Belton; design by Chris Allen (Farrar, Straus and Giroux / June 2020)1

Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld; design by Jo Thomson (Doubleday / July 2020)

It’s interesting that the US cover of Rodham is essentially the same as the UK one. I would’ve thought for sure that they would take different approaches.

Sensation Machines by Adam Wilson; design by David Litman (Soho Press / July 2020)

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Published July 3, 2020

Work in Progress with Stanley Donwood

Artist Stanley Donwood talks about his artwork for Radiohead, his collaboration with author Robert MacFarlane on Ness, and his own book Bad Island, published earlier this year by Hamish Hamilton (and slated to be published in the US by W.W. Norton this fall).

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Published June 29, 2020

Book Covers of Note, June 2020

After Australia edited by Michael Mohammed Ahmad; design by Design by Committee (Affirm Press / May 2020)

A Burning by Megha Majumdar; design by Tyler Comrie (Knopf / June 2020)

The cover of the UK edition, which will not be published until 2021(!), was designed by Craig Fraser. It has a very vintage Faber feel… maybe it’s just the type?

The Dragons, the Giant, and the Women by Wayétu Moore; design by Kimberly Glyder (Graywolf / June 2020)

Inner Coast by Donovan Hohn; design by Sarahmay Wilkinson (W.W. Norton / June 2020)

The Margot Affair by Sanaë Lemoine; design by Elena Giavaldi (Hogarth / June 2020)

The Myth of the American Dream by D. L. Mayfield; design by David Fassett (IVP / May 2020)

News Parade by Jospeh Clark; design by Matt Avery (University of Minnesota Press / May 2020)

Night, Sleep, Death, the Stars by Joyce Carol Oates; design by Jamie Keenan (Fourth Estate / June 2020)

The cover of the US edition, published by Ecco, was designed by Sara Wood:

Nothing is Wrong and Here is Why by Alexandra Petri; design by Jim Tierney (W.W. Norton / June 2020)

(I really don’t know how I feel about this cover)

The Prettiest Star by Carter Sickels; design by Luke Bird (Hub City Press / May 2020)

Luke wrote about the design process behind the cover at Literary Hub.

Real Queer America by Samantha Allen; design by Lucy Kim (Back Bay Books / June 2020)

The Second Home by Christina Clancy; design Olga Grlic; art by Elizabeth Lennie (St. Martin’s Press / June 2020)

Set the Night on Fire by Mike Davis & Jon Wiener; design by Matt Dorfman (Verso / April 2020)

Soot by Dan Vyleta; design by Mark Swan (Weidenfeld & Nicolson / February 2020)

Soot is the sequel to Dan’s novel Smoke (which I liked a lot). The cover of the UK edition was also designed by Mark:

Surviving Autocracy by Masha Gessen; design by Jason Booher (Riverhead Books / June 2020)

This reminded me of the cover of the similarly themed American Manifesto by Bob Garfield, designed by Richard Ljoenes and published earlier this year by Counterpoint….

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett; design by Lauren Peters-Collaer (Riverhead / June 2020)

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Published May 4, 2020

Reasonable Goals…

Or maybe just go back to bed…?

(From The New Yorker, of course…)

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Published April 30, 2020

A Slight Change in Emphasis

A publisher’s helpful ‘suggestions’… A recent Tom Gauld cartoon for The Guardian.

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Published April 9, 2020

Coralie Bickford Smith: How To Become An Illustrator

In this really lovely video, designer, author and artist Coralie Bickford-Smith explains how to become an illustrator (even if you are shy!):

Coralie’s latest book, The Song of the Tree, was published in the UK last month.

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Published March 27, 2020

Book Covers of Note, March 2020

This feels a bit like blogging at the end of world, but I am taking my joy where I can get it these days. I hope you can find at least a couple of minutes respite from the stress by scrolling through a few nice book covers.

Normally I link titles to the Book Depository because they ship internationally, but I won’t be doing that this month. Please try — more than ever — to support your local independent bookstore instead. Amazon does not need your money.

In Canada, many independent stores are offering free local delivery. Some may still be offering curbside pick-up, although that no longer seems to be the case in Toronto and Montreal. If you are in the US, you can also check out bookshop.org, which allows you to order online and support local stores. LitHub posted some other tips on how to help (US) bookstores here. I know there are some fundraisers for booksellers doing the rounds too. If anyone has collected them together in one place or can point to other useful resources, please let me know — I’ll be more than happy to post the links.1

Stay safe. Read books.

Actress by Anne Enright; design by Evan Gaffney (W. W. Norton / March 2020)

The Age of Innocence and The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton; design by Tristan Offit (Scribner / January 2020)

Companions by Katie M. Flynn; design by Laywan Kwan (Scout Press / March 2020)

Days of Distraction by Alexandra Chang; design by Allison Saltzman; illustration by gg (Ecco / March 2020)

The Discomfort of the Evening by Marieke Lucas Rijneveld; design by Pete Adlington (Faber & Faber / March 2020)

Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo; design by Richard Bravery; illustration by Karan Singh (Penguin / March 2020)

I believe Penguin are reissuing Bernardine Evaristo’s backlist with similarly bold covers.

The hardcover of Girl, Woman, Other, also designed by Richard Bravery, features an illustration by Ali Campbell:

Heavy by Dan Franklin; design by Luke Bird (Constable / March 2020)

Hurricane Season by Fernanda Melchor; design Jamie Keenan (New Directions / March 2020)

Inferno by Catherine Cho; design by Greg Heinimann (Bloomsbury / March 2020)

The Inland Sea by Madeleine Watts; design by Anna Morrison (Pushkin Press / March 2020)

I think this fits with the new psychedelia trend that I mentioned last year.

Ledger by Jane Hirshfield; design by John Gall (Knopf / March 2020)

My word, it’s good to have John Gall designing covers for Knopf again.

Michael Kohlhaas by Heinrich von Kleist; design by Paul Sahre (New Directions / March 2020)

Our Revolution by Honor Moore; design by Robin Bilardello (W. W. Norton / March 2020)

We Inherit What the Fires Left by William Evans; design by David Litman (Simon & Schuster / March 2020)

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Published March 20, 2020

Chip Kidd: Why Books Are Here to Stay

Here’s designer Chip Kidd talking about the enduring appeal of books for TED’s Small Thing Big Idea series:

I posted Chip’s 2012 TED Talk on book design here. But apparently he also did a talk on “the art of first impressions” in 2015 that I missed somehow:

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Published February 28, 2020

BOOKFACE | Corpus Libris

If you’re a fan of #bookfacefriday on Instagram, you will likely enjoy this short film made in collaboration with the public library in the German city of Erlangen…

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