Tag: claire sullivan

Book Covers of Note, March 2026

Published March 25, 2026

Book Covers of Note, March 2026

Hey. It’s almost spring. Hang in there!

I took a long-planned week off in March, so this month’s post was somewhat cobbled together around that trip and somehow we’ve ended up with lots of great covers to show for it! I should take vacation more often! There’s some particularly fun typography, some nice illustration, and some of the usual weirdness. Enjoy!

The Beginning Comes After the End by Rebecca Solnit; design by Gray318 (Granta / March 2026)

Business Men as Lovers by Rosemary Tonks; design by Oliver Munday (New Directions / March 2026)

Oliver Munday’s cover for The Bloater by Rosemary Tonks, also published by New Directions, was on my 2022 notable list…

Evil Genius by Claire Oshetsky; design by Vivian Lopez Rowe (Ecco / February 2026)

The Fountain by Casey Scieszka; design by Jack Smyth (Harper / March 2026)

Four Night Seas by Niamh Mac Cabe; design by Sarah Schulte (Lilliput Press / March 2026)

Gunk by Saba Sams; design by Janet Hansen (Knopf / March 2026)

I feel like shiny 3D type might just be a thing this year.

Hotel Exile by Jane Rogoyska; design by Daniele Roa (Allen Lane / February 2026)

The Hour of the Wolf by Fatima Bhutto; design by Gray318 (Daunt Originals / February 2026)

I had a hell of time trying to remember what this reminded me of, I think it is Jeffery Alan Love‘s illustration for the cover of Wolves by author Simon Ings published by Gollancz way back in 2014.

Coincidentally, the cover of Wolves and other Simon Ings titles from Gollancz were among the ABCD Award winners in 2015, and if you’re interested in reading about this year’s ABCD awards, which took place earlier this month, Vyki Hendy has a write up at SPINE.

I Am Agatha by Nancy Foley; design by Clay Smith (Avid Reader Press / March 2026)

Monster Capital edited by Ra Page & David Sue; design by David Pearson (Comma Press / March 2026)

The Natural Way of Things by Charlotte Wood; design by Lauren Peters-Collaer (Riverhead / March 2026)

Nothing Tastes as Good by Luke Dumas; design by Claire Sullivan (Atria / March 2026)

Now I Surrender by Álvaro Enrigue, translated by Natasha Wimmer; design by Lauren Peters-Collaer (Riverhead / March 2026)

The cover of the UK edition of Now I Surrender published by Harvill Secker features art by Mexican illustrator Rodolfo Baquier. His art also features on the cover of You Dreamed of Empires by Álvaro Enrigue, which was one of my notable covers in 2024.

Pixie by Jill Dawson; design by Carmen R. Balit (Bloomsbury / March 2026)

Recession by Tyler Goodspeed; design by Steve Leard (Basic Books / March 2026)

Steve does love a black, white, and red colour palette for nonfiction!

A Scandal in Konigsberg by Christopher Clark; design by Stephanie Ross (Penguin Press / March 2026)

Seasons of Glass & Iron by Amal El-Mohtar; design by Spencer Fuller / Faceout Studio (Tordotcom Publishing / March 2026)

Sisters in Yellow by Mieko Kawakami, translated by Laurel Taylor & Hitomi Yoshio; design by Tiana Dunlop; art by Tetsuya Noda (Knopf / March 2026)

The Spoil by Maile Chapman; design by Vivian Lopez Rowe (Graywolf Press / March 2026)

The Truth of Carcosa by Jacob Rollinson; design by Rodrigo Corral Studio (Union Square & Co. / January 2026)

200 Monas by Jan Saenz; design by June Park (Little Brown & Co. / March 2026)

The lips trend has carried over from 2025!

Woman Alive by Susan Ertz; illustration by Tom Gauld (Manderley Press / March 2026)

I should probably do a post of Tom’s cover illustrations for other people’s books at some point. There must be a few now?

Wretch by Eric Larocca; design by Alicia Tatone (Saga Press / March 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, July 2025

Somehow it is the end of July, and I am once again rushing to get this done. I think it’s a decent mix of covers this month though, with some big books, some indies, a few type-only covers, some nice art, and a couple of trends to watch out for. I’m glad it’s all come together, even if it is last minute!

Thanks to everyone who took time to help me with cover images and design credits over the past couple of weeks (days!) — it’s really, really appreciated! I hope everyone is having a good summer.

Black Genius by Tre Johnson; design by Dominique Jones (Dutton / July 2025)

Fools for Love by Helen Schulman; design by Janet Hansen (Knopf / July 2025)

Janet also designed the cover of Helen Schulman’s novel Lucky Dogs, which was on my 2023 notable book covers list.

And thanks to Alban Fischer for pointing out that red lips on book covers are a bit of a thing at the moment (or maybe have been for a while?)

Harbour Doubts by Bebe Ashley; design by Jack Smyth (Banshee Press / July 2025)

Special thanks to Jack for sending me this cover while he was on vacation!

I Remember by Joe Brainard; design by David Pearson (Daunt Books / July 2025)

Killer on the Road / The Babysitter Lives by Stephen Graham Jones; design by David Litman (Saga Press / July 2025)

This is fun a double cover…

Oh and I’m not saying Dave likes a ripped paper motif, but I’m not not saying it either… ;-)

There might also be a thing for cars from above…

Killing Stella by Marlen Haushofer; design by Matt Dorfman (New Directions / July 2025)

Matt also designed the cover of the New Directions edition of The Wall by Marlen Haushofer, which was featured on the blog back in October 2022 (where does the time go???)

Lili is Crying by Hélène Bessette; design by Jamie Keenan (New Directions / July 2025)

Ripped paper… it’s a thing.

Maggie, Or a Man and Woman Walk Into a Bar by Katie Yee; design by Grace Han (Summit Books / July 2025)

Thanks to Jaya Miceli for helping with the credit for this one!

Make Your Way Home by Carrie R. Moore; design by Beth Steidle (Tin House / July 2025)

No Sense in Wishing by Lawrence Burney; design by Janay Nachel (Atria / July 2025)

I think this is a really great (and rare!) example of a quote looking good on a cover. It doesn’t feel jammed in last minute.

One Yellow Eye by Leigh Radford; design by Kieryn Tyler (Pan Macmillan / July 2025)

Are peephole covers now a thing too?

The macabre cover of the US edition of One Yellow Eye, out this month from Gallery Books, was designed by Claire Sullivan, with art by Alex Eckman-Lawn.

The Painter’s Fire by Zara Anishanslin; design by Madeline Partner (Harvard University Press / July 2025)

Pan by Michael Clune; design by Janet Hansen (Penguin Press / July 2025)

Not to keep going about trends, but cropped faces might be a thing? Pan has the bonus creepy (peephole?) eyes though…

People With No Charisma by Jente Posthuma; design by Luke Bird (Scribe / July 2025)

The Phoenix Pencil Company by Allison King; design by Jo Thomson (HarperCollins / July 2025)

The Satisfaction Café by Kathy Wang; design by Jaya Miceli; art by Kosta Morr (Scribner / July 2025)

Whisky & Scotland by Neil M. Gunn; design and illustration by Sinem Erkas (Profile Books / July 2025)

This is just really nicely done.

Zofia Nowak’s Book of Superior Detecting by Piotr Cieplak; design and illustration by Meg Shepherd (Dialogue / June 2025)

I might generally be done with quirky-cozy (quozy? Sorry. Marketing brain) amateur sleuths, but this is a fun cover.

Book Covers of Note, October 2024

Hey, I hope you are good. It’s a stressful time and everyone is super busy trying to hold it together, but here we are at the end of October with another post that is both rushed and yet wordier than ever! As usual, I won’t be doing a covers round-up in November. I have to start working on the massive end of year post so I can get it done in something resembling a timely and relevant manner. I am open to last minute submissions if you think I have missed a cover, or you have something coming out between now and December. I can’t promise to include everything, but it would be especially great to hear from you if you’ve done something cool for a university press or an independent publisher this year. The only requirement is that the book was published and on shelves in 2024. If it was published in a non-English speaking part of the world, be sure to include a link to where people can find out more about the book (and ideally buy it) that isn’t Amazon.

On a related note, I have compiled an annual post of YA covers for, I don’t know, years now (10 maybe?). I don’t read a lot of YA, and it’s not a category I am very involved in professionally, so the posts take quite a long time to compile and I usually end up publishing them early in the New Year, which is less than ideal. So I guess my question is: do you still want a YA round-up? Folks used to ask for them, and now they don’t, which just be general fatigue and the fragmented nature of things at the moment, but the posts don’t attract submissions or much feedback, and interest seems to be waning. Obviously I don’t think I do a great job (if that wasn’t abundantly clear already!), but I haven’t really seen anyone else do one either, so I’ve kept doing it. I don’t know… I’m not a big a believer in clicks or engagement metrics as a measurement of anything useful, so I happy to do it if even just a couple of you say it’s still valuable. Or maybe it is just time to call it quits? Let me know what you think…

And with that, onto this month’s selections…

Absolution by Jeff VanderMeer; design by Pablo Delcan (MCD / October 2024)

Pablo Delcan also designed the covers of the 10th anniversary editions of the previous books in the Southern Reach series, Annihilation, Authority, and Acceptance, published by Picador earlier this year.

I’m still quite partial to the original US covers the trilogy (as was) designed by Charlotte Strick with illustrations by Eric Nyquist. The cover of Annihilation reminds me of The Day of the Triffids, which coincidentally has has an introduction by Jeff VanderMeer if you have the Modern Library edition. (The slightly bonkers cover of the Modern Library edition was designed by Cassie Gonzales with an illustration by comic book artist and illustrator Anders Nilson). Anyway, I’m a little sad that I can’t get the prequel to match the rest of my existing set.

Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer (US); design by Charlotte Strick; Illustration by Eric Nyquist (FSG / 2014)

Between This World and the Next by Praveen Herat; design by Jamie Keenan; illustration by Sukutangan (Restless Books / June 2024)

The Book Against Death by Elias Canetti; design by Jamie Keenan (New Directions / November 2024)

The Book of George by Kate Greathead; design by Nicole Seeback Ruggiero (Henry Holt / October 2024)

The cover of the UK edition of The Book of George, available from Atlantic Books in January 2025, was designed by Holly Battle.

On the Calculation of Volume Book I and Book II by Solvej Balle; design by Matt Dorfman (New Directions / November 2024)

The Coiled Serpent by Camilla Grudova; design by Jaya Nicely (Unnamed Press / October 2024)

The cover of the UK edition, published in November 2023 by Atlantic Books, was also designed by Holly Battle.

The Driving Machine by Witold Rybczynski; design by Jared Bartman (W.W. Norton / October 2024)

An Earthquake is a Shaking of the Surface of the Earth by Anna Moschovakis; design by Gregg Kulick (Soft Skull / November 2024)

First Law of Holes by Meg Pokrass; design by Steven Seighman (Dzanc / September 2024)

Sorry I missed this last month when I was complaining about not having enough covers from independent publishers (sigh). But also birds + polka dots…

*Tell Me Everything* by Elizabeth Strout; design by Anna Kochman (Random House / September 2024)

Hold Everything by Dobby Gibson; design by Alban Fischer (Graywolf / October 2024)

Invisible Kitties by Yu Yoyo; design by Steven Brayda; art by Yu Yoyo (HarperVia / October 2024)

Ixelles by Johannes Anyuru; design by Jonathan Pelham (Two Lines Press / October 2024)

The Living Statue by Günter Grass; design by Pablo Delcan (New Directions / October 2024)

This feels very familiar, but I can’t put my finger on why. The best I’ve got is that it looks like a poster for a theatre production. It feels very European. The austerity of it gives late 1980s-90s vibes. I don’t know. I think it’s great.

Mojave Ghost by Forrest Gander; design by Giacomo Girardi / Rodrigo Corral; lettering by Adriana Tonello (New Directions / October 2024)

Music and Joy by Daniel K. L. Chua; design by Sarah Schulte (Yale University Press / August 2024)

Paper Boat by Margaret Atwood; design by Suzanne Dean; paper art by Nathan Ward (Chatto & Windus / October 2024)

Remarkably, the design incorporates a template for paper boat that can be cut from the dust jacket and stuck together.

The cover of the Canadian edition of Paper Boat, published by McClelland & Stewart, was designed by Kelly Hill using art by Paul Klee. The cover for the US edition published by Knopf was designed by Janet Hansen. The photograph is by Ruven Afanador. It’s interesting to me that it was the US decided to use a portrait on the cover. I mean it’s a beautiful photograph and Margaret Atwood is very distinctive looking, but I would imagine she would be more recognizable to Canadians than to Americans? Anyway, it’s not often you see three entirely different approaches in the UK, US and Canada for a poetry collection.