Books, Design and Culture
I really like this new series design for Édouard Louis created by Violet Dine with AD Rodrigo Corral for Picador (US). The custom font was created by Trent Howell inspired by Jean-Luc Godard title cards.
Hey, hello. Don’t you know there’s a World Cup on? Here are this month’s book cover selections…
As If by Isabel Waidner; design by Na Kim (FSG Originals / June 2026)
The cover of the UK edition, published by Hamish Hamilton back in February, was designed by Richard Bravery:
The Au Pair by Teddy Wayne; design by Robin Bilardello (Harper / June 2026)
OK, so two quick things about this cover: one, it immediately made me think of the Nicole Kidman “Eyes Wide Shut” poster (which it doesn’t really look like?), and two, I really like the ambiguity of which way she is looking.
Bait by Eugenia Ladra, translated by Miriam Tobin; design by Gray318 (Daunt Originals / June 2026)
Close Relationships with Strangers by Krista Diamond; design by Matt Roeser (Simon & Schuster / June 2026)
Heather by Caitlin Mullen; design by Luísa Dias (Celadon / June 2026)
Hinterlands by Hannah Lucinda Smith; design by Sinem Erkas; photograph by Jonas Bendiksen (Profile Books / June 2026)
Land by Maggie O’Farrell; design by Holly Ovenden (Tinder Press / June 2026)
Make Strange by Niamh Campbell; design by Ola Galewicz; art by Jantina Peperkamp (Weidenfeld & Nicolson / June 2026)
Monster of a Land by Lauren Hough; design Tyler Comrie (Pantheon / June 2026)
I know there are two in this month’s post, but I still need more dogs on covers please.
Pool House by Mary H.K. Choi; design by Laywan Kwan; art by Virginie Schroeder (Flatiron / June 2026)
Prestige Drama by Séamas O’Reilly; design by Jaya Miceli (Cardinal / May 2026)
A Second Sight by Sarah J. Jackson; design by Owen Corrigan (Mariner / June 2026)
The Spirit of Stone by Wyl Menmuir; design by Holly Ovenden (Aurum / June 2026)
Thrilling Tales of Modern Men by Danny McBride; design by Chris Allen (Random House / June 2026)
What Came West by Josh Weil; design by Oliver Munday (Doubleday / June 2026)
Leave a CommentHey. 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!
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.
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)
Leave a CommentWell, it’s been a month. I hope you’re all keeping safe and well, especially my friends and publishing colleagues in Minnesota. Stay Strong.
The Aquatics by Osvalde Lewat, translated by Maren Baudet-Lackner; design by Alban Fischer (Coffee House Press / December 2025)
As If by Magic by Edgard Telles Ribeiro, translated by Kim M Hastings & Margaret A Neves; design by Alban Fischer (Bellevue Literary Press / January 2026)
Yes, starting off the year with two covers designed by Alban, but also two books from nonprofit publishers based in Minneapolis, Coffee House Press and Bellevue Literary Press.
Crux by Gabriel Tallent; design by Jaya Miceli (Riverhead / January 2026)
I do like how Jaya uses paintings on covers…
Galápagos by Fátima Vélez, translated by Hannah Kauders; design by Frances DiGiovanni / Rodrigo Corral Studio (Astra House / December 2025)
Half His Age by Jennette McCurdy; design by Arsh Raziuddin (Ballantine Books / January 2026)
The Hitch by Sara Levine; art and design by Amber Day (Roxane Gay Books / January 2026)
How to Commit a Postcolonial Murder by Nina McConigley; design by Joan Wong (Pantheon / January 2026)
The Infamous Gilberts by Angela Tomaski; design by Tristan Offit (Scribner / January 2026)
The Islands and the Stars by Subodhana Wijeyeratne; design by Daniel Benneworth-Gray (Stanford University Press / January 2026)
Lost Lambs by Madeline Cash; design by Na Kim (Farrar, Straus and Giroux / January 2026)
One Sun Only by Camille Bordas; design by Sinem Erkas (Serpent’s Tail / January 2026)
The Rest of our Lives by Ben Markovits; design by Maddy Angstreich; art by Kento IIDA (Summit Books / December 2025)
Service by John Tottenham; design by Samantha Johnson; illustration by David Clark (Tuskar Rock / November 2025)
I am very late on this one (for which I apologise!), but who can resist a bookshop illustration?
Seven by Joanna Kavenna; design by Robbie Porter (Faber & Faber / January 2026)
Steppe by Oksana Vasyakina, translated by Elina Alter; design by Nicole Caputo (Catapult / January 2026)
Nicole’s cover for Wound by Oksana Vasyakina was on my notable list back in September 2023.
A Very Cold Winter by Fausta Cialente, translated by Julia Nelsen; design by Jared Bartman (Transit Books / January 2026)
Vigil by George Saunders; design by Giacomo Girardi / Rodrigo Corral Studio (Random House / January 2026)
When the Museum is Closed by Emi Yagi; design by Suzanne Dean; illustration by Seb Agresti (Soft Skull / January 2026)
This is a variation on the cover of the UK edition published Harvill Secker in July last year.
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Some of my favourite covers this year were series designs. I loved the Julio Cortázar Vintage Classics editions with covers illustrated by Stephen Smith, AKA Neasden Control Centre. I was lucky enough to meet art director Suzanne Dean for coffee when she visited Toronto this summer, which was lovely. Her Haruki Murakami designs for Vintage Classics and Harvill are always a delight too.
The typographic covers for the ‘Penguin Archive’ designed by Jim Stoddart triggered my curiosity. Published in April to celebrate 90 years of Penguin Books, the designs use typography to evoke the different eras of the publisher. You can read more about the series and the design process at Creative Review. But which historic Penguin covers inspired type choices in the first place?
There was some really nice series design from independent publishers this year too. I really liked Luísa Dias‘s covers for Wild Hunt Books’ Northern Weird Project. I wanted to feature them here when the final book of the series, Turbine 34 by Katherine Clements, came out last month, but time was not on my side. Fortunately, Zachary Petit talked to Luísa about the series for PRINT in April.
In Solvej Balle’s On the Calculation of Volume septology a women repeats the same day over and over again, and Matt Dorfman‘s covers for the New Direction editions are a really creative take on loops and repetition. The first two books came out last year and were featured in my October 2024 post so they’re not on this year’s list even though the third book was published in November. There are, however, two covers from a different Danish septology included below.
Anna Morrison‘s illustrations for Transit’s Undelivered Lectures series continue to be bold and inventive. The colour palettes always catch my eye. I like Jaya Nicely traditional-with-a-twist covers for Smith & Taylor Classics too. I thought Jenny Volvovski‘s designs for Open Letter’s Latvian translators titles did a lot with a little.
I’m sure I’m missing some others.
In terms of trends, Alban Fischer noticed that there have been a lot of close-ups of lips recently, something which I Need A Book Cover also picked up on.
Elizabeth Egan wrote about ‘The Book Cover Trend You’re Seeing Everywhere‘ for the New York Times. Epitomized by “blaringly bright type in a sans-serif font atop a painting,” Egan traces it back to Darren Haggar’s 2018 cover design for My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh, and it feels like part of the wider “Instagram-friendly” approach that folks have been writing about for a while.
One strand of the ‘trend you’re seeing everywhere’ was paintings of women in various states of repose. There was a lot of elegant ennui and it almost felt like an art school version of well-dressed and distressed covers at times.
Another strand was historical paintings of animals, which fits with the “old-timey animals” covers Patrick Redford wrote about for Defector last year.
There was also a variation of old-timey animals that used white serif type for contrast.
I think the success of these covers largely depends on the image selection and the cleverness of the crop. I’m sure we will see more of them going forward, but doing it well is probably harder than it looks.
I don’t have a good name for this next trend, but in my mind I’ve been referring to this as “corner type” because of the way the text seems to turn the corners the cover. I guess what it is really doing is framing the central image. I don’t know if this is new, but I noticed it a lot this year.
I mentioned a wave of retro-nostalgic horror and suspense covers back in 2023 (I could’ve sworn it was last year until I checked!), but it feels like designers are still having fun with it as the genre as a whole gets more mainstream attention.
And speaking of nostalgia, I feel like covers inspired by 1980s advertising and airbrush art are suddenly a thing. There are a few examples from 2025, but it might be something we see more of next year as well.
Lastly, I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who supported the blog this year, especially the folks that helped out with cover images, credits, and corrections. I really appreciate you taking the time to reach out, and I’m sorry if you sent me a note and didn’t hear back. I try my best to read and reply to everything, but this is a one man show and sometimes life has other plans.
Happy Holidays!
All Consuming by Ruby Tandoh; design by Jared Bartman (Knopf / September 2025)
Also designed by Jared Bartman:
Alligator Tears by Edgar Gomez; design by Arsh Raziuddin (Crown / February 2025)
Also designed by Arsh Raziuddin:
Audition for the Fox by Martin Cahill; design and illustration by Elizabeth Story (Tachyon Books / September 2025)
Barbara by Joni Murphy; design by Frances DiGiovanni and Rodrigo Corral (Astra House / March 2025)
Beasts by Ingvild Bjerkeland, translated by Rosie Hedger; design by John Gall (Levine Querido / April 2025)
Also designed by John Gall:
Berlin Shuffle by Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz; translated by Philip Boehm; design by Emily Mahar (Henry Holt & Co. / December 2025)
Beta Vulgaris by Margie Sarsfield; design by Joanne O’Neill (W. W. Norton / February 2025)
Big Chief by Jon Hickey; design by David Litman (Simon & Schuster / April 2025)
Also designed by David Litman:
Big Time by Jordan Prosser; design by Luke Bird (Dead Ink Books / September 2025)
Also designed by Luke Bird:
Black Genius by Tre Johnson; design by Dominique Jones (Dutton / July 2025)
The Book of George by Kate Greathead; design by Holly Battle (Atlantic Books / January 2025)
Blob by Maggie Su; design by Robin Bilardello (Harper / January 2025)
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)
The Director by Daniel Kehlmann, translated by Ross Benjamin; design by Andrew Smith (Riverrun / May 2025)
Dominion by Addie E. Citchens; design by Na Kim (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / August 2025)
The Eternal Dice by César Vallejo; design by Pablo Delcan (New Directions / April 2025)
Everything Must Go by Dorian Lynskey; design by Eli Mock (Pantheon / January 2025)
Also designed by Eli Mock:
Fake Muse by Max Besora; design by Alban Fischer (Open Letter / February 2025)
Flat Earth by Jade Levy; design by Nicole Caputo (Catapult / November 2025)
Fools for Love by Helen Schulman; design by Janet Hansen (Knopf / July 2025)
Also designed by Janet Hansen:
Happy Bad by Delaney Nolan; design by Adriana Tonello (Astra House / October 2025)
How to Dodge a Cannonball by Dennard Dayle; design by Christopher Sergio (Henry Holt & Co. / June 2025)
The Idea of an Entire Life by Billy-Ray Belcourt; design by Kate Sinclair (McClelland & Stewart / September 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)
In Defence of Barbarism by Louisa Yousfi; design by Chantal Jahchan (Verso / January 2025)
I Remember by Joe Brainard; design by David Pearson (Daunt Books / July 2025)
The Island of Last Things by Emma Sloley; design by Keith Hayes; art by Jose David Morales (Flatiron Books / September 2025)
Killing Stella by Marlen Haushofer; design by Matt Dorfman (New Directions / July 2025)
Also designed by Matt Dorfman:
The Last Jewish Joke by Michel Wieviorka; design by David Drummond (Polity Press / September 2025)
Maggie, Or a Man and Woman Walk Into a Bar by Katie Yee; design by Grace Han (Summit Books / July 2025)
Also designed by Grace Han:
Make Your Way Home by Carrie R. Moore; design by Beth Steidle; art by Uzu Njoku (Tin House / July 2025)
Also designed by Beth Steidle:
Moderation by Elaine Castillo; design by Lynn Buckley (Viking / August 2025)
Money To Burn by Asta Olivia Nordenhof; design by Matt Broughton; art Katrien de Blauwer (Jonathan Cape / February 2025)
Also designed by Matt Broughton:
The Novel and the Blank by Matthew P. Brown; design by Jenny Volvovski (Johns Hopkins University Press / August 2025)
On the Clock by Claire Baglin; design by Erik Carter (New Directions / March 2025)
Also designed by Erik Carter:
The Pawn by Paco Cerdà; design by Emily Mahon (Deep Vellum / June 2025)
Portalmania by Debbie Urbanski; deisgn by Math Monahan (Simon & Schuster / May 2025)
Queen of Swords by Jazmina Barrera, translated by Christina MacSweeney; design by Jonathan Pelham (Two Lines Press / November 2025)
Root Rot by Saskia Nislow; design by Luísa Dias (Creature Publishing / March 2025)
Also designed by Luísa Dias:
Seduction Theory by Emily Adrian; design by Julianna Lee (Little Brown and Company / August 2025)
The Slip by Lucas Schaeffer; design by Jack Smyth (Simon & Schuster / June 2025)
Also designed by Jack Smyth:
Super Gay Poems by Stephanie Burt; design by Jaya Miceli (Harvard University Press / April 2025)
Also designed by Jaya Miceli:
There Is No Place For Us by Brian Goldstone; design by Anna Kochman (Crown / March 2025)
Things That Disappear by Jenny Erpenbeck; design by Oliver Munday (New Directions / October 2025)
Also designed by Oliver Munday:
Time and Chance by Katharine Coles; design by Joan Wong (Turtle Point Press / April 2025)
A Time Outside This Time by Amitava Kumar; design by Tom Etherington (Vintage / February 2025)
Also designed by Tom Etherington:
Too Soon by Betty Shamieh; design by Kimberly Glyder (Avid Reader Press / January 2025)
Also designed by Kimberly Glyder:
Two Truths and a Lie by Cory O’Brien; design by Tyler Comrie (Pantheon / March 2025)
Ultramarine by Mariette Navarro; design by Daniel Benneworth Gray (Deep Vellum / March 2025)
Also designed by Daniel Benneworth Gray:
Vampires at Sea by Lindsay Merbaum; design by Jaya Nicely (Creature / October 2025)
Also designed by Jaya Nicely:
Visions and Temptations by Harald Voetmann; design by Jamie Keenan (New Directions / August 2025)
Also designed by Jamie Keenan:
What Hunger by Catherine Dang; design by Maddy Angstreich; photograph by Bobby Doherty (Simon & Schuster / August 2025)
Also designed by Maddy Angstreich:
Will There Ever Be Another You by Patricia Lockwood; design by Lauren Peters-Collaer (Riverhead Books / September 2025)
Also designed by Lauren Peters-Collaer:
I like these bright and bold covers by Stephen Smith, AKA Neasden Control Centre, for the new Vintage Classics editions of Julio Cortázar a lot. It feels like an inspired match of illustrator to author. The art direction is by Suzanne Dean of course.
You will have to wait for the hardcover of Divertimento (translated into English for the first time by Harry Morales) because it doesn’t go on sale until May 2026, but the paperback reissues came out last month in the UK.
Hey. Here are this month’s book covers of note.
Archipelago by Natalie Bakopoulos; design by Beth Steidle (Tin House Books / August 2025)
I really had to wrack my brain to think of what this reminded me of. It was this Jaya Miceli cover for Archetype by M.D. Waters from June 2014!
(Although having said that, the type and palette also reminded me of Kelly Winton’s cover for Black Swans by Eve Babitz from April 2018)
Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz; design Christine Folzer; illustration by Eric Nyquist (Tordotcom / August 2025)
Chilco by Daniela Catrileo; design by Charlotte Grimm (FSG Originals / July 2025)
The Dance and the Fire by Daniel Saldaña París; design by Farjana Yasmin (Catapult / July 2025)
The Dilemmas of Working Women by Fumio Yamamoto; design Sarah Kellogg (HarperVia / August 2025)
The “well-dressed and distressed” trend is still very much a thing.
Dominion by Addie E. Citchens; design by Na Kim (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / August 2025)
Dwelling by Emily Hunt Kivel; design by Matt Dorfman (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / August 2025)
Friends with Words by Martha Barnette; design by Ben Denzer (Abrams / August 2025)
In the Family Way by Laney Katz Becker; design by Joanne O’Neill; illustration by Luis Mendo (Harper / June 2025)
Lessons for Young Artists by David Gentleman; design Tom Etherington (Penguin Books / July 2025)
Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel; design by Nick Misani (Black Swan / June 2025)
Necessary Fiction by Eloghosa Osunde; design by Lauren Peters-Collaer; art Affen Oluwasegun (Riverhead / July 2025)
A New New Me by Helen Oyeyemi; design by Lauren Peters-Collaer (Riverhead / August 2025)
Resting Bitch Face by Taylor Byas; design Nicole Caputo (Soft Skull / August 2025)
Ruth by Kate Riley; design by Lauren Peters-Collaer (Riverhead / August 2025)
Lots of Lauren’s work in this month’s post…
Seduction Theory by Emily Adrian; design by Julianna Lee (Little Brown and Company / August 2025)
Solitaria by Eliana Alves Cruz; design by Talia Abramson (Knopf Canada / August 2025)
Sound System by Dave Randall; design by Jack Smyth (Pluto Press / August 2025)
The original cover for Sound System designed by Jamie Keenan was featured here in April 2017. This month’s post is a time machine!
Sweetener by Marissa Higgins; design by Sarah Brody (Catapult / August 2025)
Weren’t we just talking about lips on book covers…?
13 Months Haunted by Jimmy Juliano design by Alex Robbins (Dutton / August 2025)
Alex also designed the cover of Jimmy Juliano’s previous book Dead Eleven. I confess I have mixed feelings about the current nostalgia for all things 1980s/90s…
This Here is Love by Princess Joy L. Perry; design by Keith Hayes (W.W. Norton / August 2025)
I was reminded, looking back at the posts from 2018, that someone really should collect Keith’s photos into a book…
TonyInterruptor by Nicola Barker; design by Luke Bird (Granta / August 2025)
A Truce That Is Not Peace by Miriam Toews; design by Kelly Hill (Knopf Canada / August 2025)
The covers of the UK (left) and US (right) were designed by Julian Humphries for 4th Estate and Patti Ratchford for Bloomsbury respectively.
Visions and Temptations by Harald Voetmann; design by Jamie Keenan (New Directions / August 2025)
Jamie’ also designed the cover of Sublunar by Harald Voetmann which was one of my favourite covers of 2023.
With Her Own Hands by Nicole Nehrig; design by Sara Wood (W.W. Norton / August 2025)
What Hunger by Catherine Dang; design by Maddy Angstreich; photograph by Bobby Doherty (Simon & Schuster / August 2025)
Leave a CommentSomehow 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.
Comments closedIt’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?
Hey, I hope you’re all keeping safe and well. Apologies for a slightly rushed post this month. It’s been kind of a busy time, and I’m travelling for work next week, so I’m sure I’ve missed a few covers and connections. I’ll try to catch up over the summer if/when things quieten down. Anyway… there are still lots of great covers in this month’s post — some from the usual suspects for sure, but also a few indies, a university press, a couple of covers from the UK and Ireland, and one from Canada…
Audition by Katie Kitamura; design by Lauren Peters-Collaer (Riverhead / April 2025)
The cover of A Separation by Katie Kitamuria, designed by Jaya Miceli, was on my list of notable book covers back in 2017 (and featured on this list from 2020 that I’d forgotten I’d posted!)
Bad Nature by Ariel Courage; design by Emily Mahar (Henry Holt & Co. / April 2025)
Back in the Day by Oliver Lovrenski; design by Josie Staveley Taylor; photography by Valentin Fabre (Penguin Books / April 2025)
Barbara by Joni Murphy; design by Frances DiGiovanni and Rodrigo Corral (Astra House / March 2025)
If you missed it, Rodrigo Corral was recently profiled by Zachary Petit for Fast Company.
And, the cover of Animals by Joni Murphy, designed by Na Kim, was featured on my 2020 notable list. It’s an interesting contrast…
Big Chief by Jon Hickey; design by David Litman (Simon & Schuster / April 2025)
Crumb by Dan Nadel; design by Gregg Kulick (Scribner / April 2025)
The Eternal Dice by César Vallejo; design by Pablo Delcan (New Directions / April 2025)
The Fact Checker by Austin Kelley; cover illustration by Amber Day (Atlantic Monthly Press / April 2025)
Harriet Tubman in Concert by Bob the Drag Queen; design by Chelsea McGuckin (Galley Books / March 2025)
The Honditsch Cross by Ingeborg Bachmann; design by Peter Mendelsund (New Directions / April 2025)
Peter Mendelsund also designed the cover of Malina by Ingeborg Bachmann for New Directions. It was on my notable list in 2019 (and on the aforementioned look back at the decade).
The Odyssey translated by Daniel Mendelsohn; design by Monograph (University of Chicago Press / April 2025)
I was reminded of Matt’s 2017 cover for David Ferry’s translations of the Aeneid from University of Chicago Press. It sticks in my mind at least partially for it’s use of Sandrine Nugue’s typeface Infini.
Notes to John by Joan Didion; design John Gall; photograph by Annie Leibovitz (Knopf / April 2025)
The photo feels very appropriate given how Didion would probably have felt about this book being published.
Open, Heaven by Seán Hewitt; design by Sarah Schulte (Knopf / April 2025)
Open Up by Thomas Morris; design by Jaya Nicely (Unnamed Press / April 2025)
The Pretender by Jo Harkin; design by Greg Heinimann (Bloomsbury / April 2025)
The cover of the US edition, published by Knopf this month, was designed by John Gall (the art is from Portrait of a Boy with a Falcon by 17th century Flemish painter Wallerant Vaillant, which is part of the Met’s collection in NYC if you’re curious)
This Room is Impossible to Eat by Nicol Hochholczerová; design by Matt Needle (Parthian Books / March 2025)
I love the bold movie-posterness of this design, but I also like to think it’s secretly the completes the cover for Mothers by Chris Power designed by Grace Han…
Small Ceremonies by Kyle Edwards; design by Kate Sinclair (McClelland & Stewart / April 2025)
This reminded me of another Grace Han cover, although the resemblance is similarly passing…
Super Gay Poems by Stephanie Burt; design by Jaya Miceli (Harvard University Press / April 2025)
Typefaces with dots are apparently a thing at the moment. The cover of Bad Friend by Tiffany Watt Smith from Faber, also out this month, uses type that has dots for counters too. Please let me know who the designer is and I’ll happily add the credit.
Tenterhoooks by Claire-Lise Kieffer; design by Jack Smyth (Banshee Press / February 2025)
Jack’s conversation with Steve Leard on the Cover Meeting podcast is really great if you haven’t listened to it yet.
Terrestrial by Joe Mungo Reed; design by Abby Weintraub (W.W. Norton / April 2025)
1 CommentWell, I don’t know about you, but I certainly didn’t miss the ceaseless chaos and constant anxiety. It is exhausting.
Anyway… I hope you’re keeping safe and well despite it all. I don’t know where March has gone, but this month’s post is another bumper edition with lots of great covers. I’m happy to have a bit more nonfiction in the mix, and there are lots of covers from indie publishers and even a university press along side the usual suspects. There are also a couple of Canadians if you’re keeping score.
Disposable by Sarah Jones; design by Keith Hayes; photograph by Susan Goldstein (Avid Reader / February 2025)
Goth by Lol Tolhurst; design by Timothy O’Donnell (Da Capo / February 2025)
This is the cover for US paperback and it feels like it should be printed with that blackest black stuff from MIT.
Update: here’s a photo from Timothy’s Instagram of the sprayed edges:
The hardcover, also designed by Timothy was featured way back in September 2023 (I was convinced it was from last year!).
How To Change History by Robin Hemley; design Ashley Muehlbauer (University of Nebraska Press / March 2025)
Integrated by Noliwe Rooks; design by Adam Maida (Pantheon / March 2025)
The Last Bell by Donald McRae; design by Craig Fraser; art by Amanda Kelley (Simon & Schuster / March 2025)
Lion by Sonya Walger; design by Katy Homans (NYRB Books / February 2025)
Luminous by Sylvia Park; design by Alex Merto (Simon & Schuster / March 2025)
Motherdom by Alex Bollen; design by Jenny Volvovski (Verso / March 2025)
I posted Jenny’s black and white cover designs for the Latvian Translator Triptych published by Open Letter earlier this month if you missed them.
Nobody Asked For This by Georgia Toews; design by Emma Dolan; art by Ginna Nebrig (Doubleday Canada / March 2025)
On Giving Up by Adam Phillips; design by Alex Merto (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / March 2024)
Yes, this is from March 2024, so I am precisely a year late posting it. Either I didn’t see it last year or I couldn’t find the credit at the time. Anyway, Alex posted or re-posted this cover relatively recently and it spoke to me.
I also thought it went quite well with this cover…
On the Clock by Claire Baglin; design by Jack Smyth (Daunt Books / March 2025)
If you haven’t listened to Jack in conversation with Steve Leard on the Cover Meeting podcast yet, you should remedy that.
The cover of the US edition of On the Clock by Claire Baglin, published by New Directions and also out this month, was designed by Erik Carter.
The Passenger Seat by Vijay Khurana; design by Zoe Norvell (Biblioasis / March 2025)
Passing Through a Prairie Country by Dennis E. Staples; design by Nicole Caputo (Counterpoint / March 2025)
Potomac Fever by Charlotte Taylor Fryar; design by Tree Abraham (Bellevue Literary Press / March 2025)
Rain of Ruin by Richard Overy; design by David Gee (W.W. Norton / March 2025)
Rehearsals for Dying by Ariel Gore; design by Sarah Schulte (Amethyst Editions / March 2025)
A Room Above a Shop by Anthony Shapland; design by Tom Etherington (Granta / March 2025)
I compared Tom’s covers for Amitava Kumar to Peter Blake last month. This one is giving me Elsworth Kelly vibes!
Stag Dance by Torrey Peters; design by Rachel Ake (Random House / March 2025)
Rachel Ake also designed the cover of Torrey Peters’ novel Detransition Baby, which was one of my notable covers of 2021.
There Is No Place For Us by Brian Goldstone; design by Anna Kochman (Crown / March 2025)
Tongues by Anders Nilsen; design by Anders Nilsen (Pantheon / March 2025)
I don’t often post the covers of graphic novels, but I like this one a lot.
Two Truths and a Lie by Cory O’Brien; design by Tyler Comrie (Pantheon / March 2025)
This makes me think of David Pelham’s airbrushed sci-fi covers for Penguin.
Ultramarine by Mariette Navarro; design by Daniel Benneworth Gray (Deep Vellum / March 2025)
The Unworthy by Agustina Bazterrica; design by Emma Ewbank (Pushkin Press / March 2025)
The slightly less bonkers, but also fun cover of the US edition (published by Scribner this month) was designed by Math Monahan. I’m also quite partial to the definitely bonkers Polish(?) cover designed by Tomasz Majewski.
Voices of the Fallen Heroes by Yukio Mishima; design by John Gall (Vintage / January 2025)
I like these elegant Jenny Volvovski cover designs for Open Letter‘s Latvian translator triptych of Berlin by Andris Kuprišs, translated by Ian Gwin, Birthday by Jana Egle, translated by Uldis Balodis, and The River by Laura Vinogradova, translated by Kaija Straumanis, all publishing this month. I think there’s something a bit early 2000’s Knopf about them.
And speaking of Jenny Volvovski, she has fun side project redesigning the covers of books she’s read, From Cover to Cover.
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