Tag: chris bentham

Book Covers of Note, February 2026

Published February 26, 2026

Book Covers of Note, February 2026

Hey. I hope you’re keeping safe and well, especially my friends and colleagues in snowy NYC. Thanks to everyone who helped with images and design credits this month — it’s been a really busy month so I really appreciate it!

Angry Girls Will Get Us Through by Rebecca Traister; design by Sarah Creech; art by Adara Sánchez (Simon & Schuster BYR / February 2026)

And just ICYMI, my look back at some of last year’s young adult covers can be found here.

As If by Isabel Waidner; design by Richard Bravery (Hamish Hamilton / February 2026)

Baron Wenckheim’s Homecoming by László Krasznahorkai, translated by Ottilie Mulzet; design by Paul Sahre (New Directions / January 2026)

Here’s the full jacket:

And it probably makes more sense if you’ve seen the hardcover, also designed by O.O.P…

Brawler by Lauren Groff; design by Jaya Miceli; art by Vladimir Dunjic (Riverhead / February 2026)

Clutch by Emily Nemens; design by Beth Steidle; art by Wayne Thiebaud (Tin House / February 2026)

This reminded me of Alex Merto‘s cover for On Giving Up by Adam Phillips from a couple of years ago…

Crux by Gabriel Tallent; design by Chris Bentham (Fig Tree / February 2026)

This is the UK cover. The cover of the US edition of Crux designed by Jaya Miceli was in last month’s post.

The Disappearing Act by Maria Stepanova; translated by Sasha Dugdale; design by Oliver Munday (New Directions / February 2026)

Eradication by Jonathan Miles; design by Oliver Munday (Doubleday / February 2026)

Oliver’s own novel, Head of Household, is out from Simon & Schuster in the US this month too. The cover was designed by Christopher Brand, and you can read a conversation between the two about the design process at LitHub.

Favorita by Michelle Steinbeck; translated by Jen Calleja; design by Henry Petrides (Faber & Faber / February 2026)

A Killing in Cannabis by Scott Eden; design by Giacomo Girardi / Rodrigo Corral Studio (Spiegel & Grau / February 2026)

Lithium by Malén Denis; translated by Laura Hatry & John Wronoski; design by Joan Wong (New Directions / February 2026)

Murder Bimbo by Rebecca Novack; design by Ben Wiseman (Avid Reader / February 2026)

The cover of the UK edition of Murder Bimbo published by Manilla Press was designed by Alex Kirby.

Playermakers by Michael Kimmel; design by David Litman (W.W. Norton / February 2026)

The Reservation by Rebecca Kauffman; design by Nicole Caputo (Counterpoint / February 2026)

It’s nice to see an author get consistency across their covers. I think the type is Tabular? Someone should do a Fonts in Use post!

The Gunners by Rebecca Kauffman; design by Nicole Caputo (Counterpoint / March 2018)

Super Nintendo by Keza MacDonald; design by Jonathan Pelham (Guardian Faber Publishing / February 2026)

Technology and Barbarism by Michel Nieva; translated by Rahul Bery; design by Frances DiGiovanni / Rodrigo Corral Studio; art by Julien Gobled (Astra House / February 2026)

The cover of Nieva’s novel Dengue Boy also from Rodrigo Corral Studio was included in February 2025’s post.

Dengue Boy by Michel Nieva; design by Rodrigo Corral; illustration by Sophy Hollington (Astra House / February 2025)

Tell Me How You Eat by Amber Husain; design by Claire Sullivan (Washington Square Press / February 2026)

They by Helle Helle; translated by Martin Aitken; design by Erik Carter (New Directions / February 2026)

Book Covers of Note, October 2025

Hey, I hope you’re keeping safe and well wherever you are. Here are my latest book covers of note…

Big Kiss, Bye-Bye by Claire-Louise Bennett; design by Stephanie Ross; cover art by Maria Guimarães

The Bridegroom Was a Dog by Yoko Tawada; cover illustration by David Plunkert (New Directions / November 2025)

Casanova 20 by Davey Davis; design by Victoria Maxfield (Catapult / December 2025)

Don’t Burn Anyone at the Stake Today by Naomi Alderman; design Chris Bentham (Fig Tree / November 2025)

The Extremities! by Samantha Kimmey; design by Kimberly Glyder (University of Iowa Press / October 2025)

False War by Carlos Manuel Álvarez; design by Kimberly Glyder (Graywolf / October 2025)

Two back to back from Kimberly this month!

The Four Spent the Day Together by Chris Kraus; design by Alicia Tatone (Scribner / October 2025)

Happy Bad by Delaney Nolan; design by Adriana Tonello (Astra House / October 2025)

The Hole by Hye-Young Pyun, translated by Sora Kim-Russell; design by Beci Kelly (Doubleday / July 2025)

How Artists Make Money and How Money Makes Artists by David Berry; design by Raymond Biesinger (Coach House Books / October 2025)

The cover of On Nostalgia by David Berry also designed by Raymond Biesinger featured on the blog back in July 2020.

And Raymond Biesinger’s own book, 9 Times My Work Has Been Ripped Off, was also published by Drawn & Quarterly this month.

How Will Capitalism End? by Wolfgang Streeck; design by Daniel Benneworth-Gray (Verso / August 2025)

I Deliver Parcels in Beijing by Hu Anyan, translated by Jack Hargreaves; design by Rodrigo Corral; illustration by Klaus Kremmerz (Astra House / October 2025)

Jesus Christ Kinski by Benjamin Myers; design by Greg Heinimann (Bloomsbury / October 2025)

Lucky Girl by Allie Tagle-Dokus; design by Beth Steidle (Tin House / November 2025)

Minor Black Figures by Brandon Taylor; design by Grace Han (Riverhead / October 2025)

On Booze by F. Scott Fitzgerald; design by Marian Bantjes (New Directions / November 2025)

The Salvage by Anbara Salam; design by Beth Steidle (Tin House / October 2025)

Sea Now by Eva Meijer, translated by Anne Thompson Melo; design by Jared Bartman (Two Lines Press / October 2025)

Sea, Poison by Caren Beilin; design by Jamie Keenan (New Directions / October 2025)

Sister Creatures by Laura Venita Green; design by Jaya Nicely; photograph by Laura Makabresku (Unnamed Press / October 2025)

Super-Frog Saves Tokyo by Haruki Murakami, translated by Jay Rubin; design by Suzanne Dean; illustration by Seb Agresti (Harvill / October 2025)

Things That Disappear by Jenny Erpenbeck; design by Oliver Munday (New Directions / October 2025)

The Tragedy of True Crime by John J. Lennon; design by Henry Sene Yee (Celadon Books / September 2025)

This reminded me of the cover of There Is No Place For Us by Brian Goldstone designed by Anna Kochman for Crown, which featured in March’s post. I’m no Barnett Newman, I do like a bold stripe.

Unfit by Ariana Harwicz, translated by Jessie Mendez Sayer; design by Erik Carter (New Directions / October 2025)

Vampires at Sea by Lindsay Merbaum; design by Jaya Nicely (Creature / October 2025)

The Wax Child by Olga Ravn; design by Dan Jackson (Viking / November 2025)

The cover of the US edition of The Wax Child, published by New Directions at the end of September, was designed by Joan Wong.

Dan Jackson also designed a new cover for the paperback edition of The Employees by Olga Ravn out next month in the UK from Penguin, which weirdly kind of looks like a Joan Wong collage, but could also be part of a dismembered / disembodied limbs on covers trend? I’m struggling to think of too many examples off the top of my head. Alban Fischer‘s cover design for My Dreadful Body by Egana Djabbarova? But that’s not out until next year. I’m sure there are a couple of others out there. I will have a think on it.

What a Time to be Alive by Jenny Mustard; cover art by Shannon Cartier Lucy (Sceptre / April 2025)

I am very late to this one, but the art is fun and it kind of fits with recent trends so I didn’t want to leave it out. Let me know if there is a design credit to add.

Interestingly, Shannon Cartier Lucy’s art was also used on the cover of Worry by Alexandra Tanner designed by Alicia Tatone for Scribner from last year…

The White Hot by Quiara Alegría Hudes; design by Rodrigo Corral and Adriana Tonello; photograph by Lisa Sorgini (One World / November 2025)

The World After Rain by Canisia Lubrin; design by Jennifer Griffiths (McClelland & Stewart / October 2025)

Book Covers of Note, June 2025

It’s been another busy month here, so apologies for the slightly scattered post. It includes a few covers that I missed earlier in early in the year, and a few other bits and pieces. I hope everyone is doing OK. Here are the covers…

Audition by Pip Adam; cover art by Leopold Adi Surya (Coffee House Press / June 2025)

It looks like this was actually the cover of the editions originally available in New Zealand and Australia in 2023, so apologies for being so late to it.

Bad Animals by Sarah Braunstein; design Oliver Munday (W. W. Norton / February 2025)

Bear Witness by Ross Halperin; design by David Litman (Liveright / May 2025)

They are obviously very, very different books, but the cover Bear Witness reminded me of the cover for Going Home by Tom Lamont designed by Jared Bartman published by Knopf earlier this year.

Disappoint Me by Nicola Dinan; design by Rachel Ake (Dial Press / May 2025)

Everybody Says It’s Everything by Xhenet Aliu; design Eli Mock (Random House / March 2025)

Flashlight by Susan Choi; design by June Park (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / June 2025)

I had almost forgotten that I did a little post about sideways covers 10 years ago(!). It could be time for a new one?

Girls with Long Shadows by Tennessee Hill; design Robin Bilardello (Harper / May 2025)

Are green covers with pink type a thing now? There’s also the cover of All the Parts We Exile by Roza Nozari designed by Lisa Jager for Knopf Canada which came out in February…

The Island by Antigone Kefala; design by Sarah Schulte (Transit Books / June 2025)

Another (mostly) green cover, with some pink type here!

Sarah’s (also mostly green with some pink!) cover for Rosa Mistika by Euphrase Kezilahabi, published this month by Yale University Press, also caught my eye, but I couldn’t source a hi-res image for it in time for the post…

Kill Creatures by Rory Power; illustration by Kei-Ella Loewe; art direction by Liz Dresner (Delacorte Press / June 2025)

The Longest Way to Eat a Melon by Jacquelyn Zong-Li Ross; design by Emily Mahon (Sarabande Books / June 2025)

Both this and the cover for Disappoint Me were featured in a New York Times piece about recent books that are part of a painting + bold sans-serif cover trend.

The Longest Way to Eat a Melon is also an addition to the yellow type trend. The cover of The Slip by Miriam Webster designed by Typography Studio, out next month in Australia from Aniko Press, hits both trends too… (Do paintings of animals count as a separate trend from painting of people?)

Misophonia by Dana Vowinckel; design by Jack Smyth (HarperVia / May 2025)

Participatory Culture Wars by Simone Driessen, Bethan Jones and Benjamin Litherland; design by Ashley Muehlbauer (University of Iowa Press / June 2025)

This made me think of transferring newspaper print with pink silly putty, which probably hasn’t been possible for decades. I am ancient and made of dust.

Spine Magazine has brought back its round-up of recent university press covers too if you’re interested.

The Pawn by Paco Cerdà; design by Emily Mahon (Deep Vellum / June 2025)

Rytual by Chloe Elisabeth Wilson; design by Design by Committee (Penguin Australia / May 2025)

Separate Rooms by Pier Vittorio Tondelli; design Elena Giavaldi (Zando / April 2025)

The Sisters by Jonas Hassen Khemiri; design by Rodrigo Corral (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / June 2025)

I think this cover was originally used for the Swedish edition so technically it is also from 2023. (Finger on the pulse over here… )

The Slip by Lucas Schaeffer; design by Jack Smyth (Simon & Schuster / June 2025)

Tank by Mark Urban; design by Chris Bentham (Penguin / June 2025)

I love the “does what it says on the tin” literalness of both the title and image here.

UnWorld by Jason Greene; design by Tyler Comrie (Knopf / June 2025)

Valencia by Michelle Tea; design by Megan Grace (Profile / June 2025)

~~Let me know if you recognize the photo / photographer and I’ll add the credit.~~

The photograph is by photographer Chloe Sherman from her project Renegades: San Francisco, the 1990s, which is now available as book from Hatje Cantz.

Weepers by Peter Mendelsund; design by Thom Colligan (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / June 2025)

This reminded me of the cover of The Sun Walks Down by Fiona McFarlane designed by Na Kim for FSG a few years ago (the colour palette of which is similar to a lot of Na’s paintings funnily enough!).

Peter Mendelsund‘s memoir/monograph Exhibitionist is available from Catapult this month too. I think Peter designed the cover for this one himself (with Corbusier inspired stencil type?).

The Washington Post recently toured Peter’s apartment and talked to him about the book.

Work Nights by Erica Peplin; design by Holly Ovenden (Gallery Books / June 2025)

This is giving me Claes Oldenburg vibes. (Is there someone who paints photorealistic donuts? There is probably is).

Are donut covers a thing? Can we make them a thing?

*Piglet* by Lottie Hazell; design Beci Kelly (Transworld / January 2024)

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Book Covers of Note, February 2025

Published February 25, 2025

Book Covers of Note, February 2025

Hey, I hope you’re safe and well. This month’s post is a big one so I’m pretty much going to let you get on with it, but before I do, I just wanted to mention that I’ve included a gallery of all this month’s covers as the bottom of the post so you can click through them all. This is in response to a reader email about the size of the covers on screen. I think the gallery looks nice, but I am worried that it’s going to play absolute havoc with the RSS / email so apologies in advance if that’s case. Anyway, enjoy this month’s covers, and let me know what you think.

Alligator Tears by Edgar Gomez; design by Arsh Raziuddin (Crown / February 2025)

Atrocity by Bruce Robbins; design by David Drummond (Stanford University Press / February 2025)

Ballerina by Patrick Modiano; design by Monograph (Yale University Press / January 2025)

Beta Vulgaris by Margie Sarsfield; design by Joanne O’Neill (W. W. Norton / February 2025)

Boyhood of Cain by Michael Amherst; design by Jack Smyth; photograph by Kirsten McKee (Faber & Faber / February 2025)

Creep by Emma van Straaten; design by Joanne O’Neill (Harper Perennial / February 2025)

Deep Cuts by Holly Brickley; design by Chris Allen (Crown / February 2025)

Dengue Boy by Michel Nieva; design by Rodrigo Corral; illustration by Sophy Hollington (Astra House / February 2025)

Fake Muse by Max Besora; design by Alban Fischer (Open Letter / February 2025)

I Love You So Much It’s Killing Us Both by Mariah Stovall; design by Luke Bird (Influx Press / February 2025)

This is the UK paperback cover. The cover of the US hardcover published by Soft Skull in February last year and designed by Jack Smyth was in March 2024’s round-up.

Immemorial by Lauren Markham; design by Anna Morrison (Transit / February 2025)

In Defence of Barbarism by Louisa Yousfi; design by Chantal Jahchan (Verso / January 2025)

Mazeltov by Eli Zuzovsky; design by Emily Mahar; art by Daniel El Dibujo (Henry Holt / February 2025)

Money To Burn by Asta Olivia Nordenhof; design by Matt Broughton; art Katrien de Blauwer (Vintage / February 2025)

The type is apparently the Lubalin-inspired Herbus designed by Eliott Grunewald.

Reading the Waves by Lidia Yuknavitch; design Lauren Peters-Collaer (Riverhead / February 2025)

Saint of the Narrow Street by William Boyle; design by Luke Bird (Soho Crime / February 2025)

Smother by Rachel Richardson; design by Hana Nakamura (W. W. Norton / February 2025)

The Stain by Rikki Ducornet; design by Daniel Benneworth-Gray (Dalkey Archive Press / February 2025)

A Time Outside This Time by Amitava Kumar; design by Tom Etherington (Vintage / February 2025)

This accompanies the paperback of My Beloved Life, published at the end of last month.

The cover of the hardcover of My Beloved Life was designed by Oliver Munday.

The Vanishing Point by Paul Theroux; design by Chris Bentham (Penguin / February 2025)

The cover of the US edition designed by Pete Garceau was on last month’s list.

The World After Gaza by Pankaj Mishra; design by Darren Haggar (Penguin Press / February 2025)

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Published August 30, 2022

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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Published January 31, 2020

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.