This has been an exhausting year for oh so, so many reasons, but book covers remained a bright spot for me in 2018.
As always, my end-of-year list collects together the covers that I found interesting or noteworthy in some way or another in the past 12 months. It is organized alphabetically by title and grouped by designer (because that makes sense to me when I’m compiling the list).
In terms of trends, there were a lot of hot orange book covers this year. Stark black, white and red covers were popular for non-fiction. Stars and stripes featured heavily too (I refuse to do a post about this!). Snakes seemed to be a thing!
Typographically, big white sans serifs are still a go-to. And hand-lettering and handwriting are still going strong. But retro typefaces, particularly big serifs with swishy swashes, are making a comeback.
Thanks as always to everyone who has supported the blog this year, especially the folks who have taken the time to help with cover images and design credits. I’m sorry for the many, many the emails I have not replied to this year, and for all the covers, designers, and publishers I have overlooked.
Aetherial Worlds by Tatyana Tolstaya; design by Stephanie Ross (Knopf / March 2018)
Stephanie Ross’s cover for Ruth Bader Ginsberg by Jane Sherron De Hart, published by Knopf in October, also caught my eye this year.
Agrippina: Empress, Exile, Hustler, Whore by Emma Southon; design by Mark Ecob (Unbound / August 2018)
America is Not the Heart by Elaine Castillo; design by Gray318 (Atlantic Books / May 2018)
Also designed by Gray318:
Something Great and Beautiful by Enrico Pellegrini; design by Gray318 (Other Press / September 2018)
Me Mum. Me Dad. Me. by Malcolm Duffy; design Gray318 (Head of Zeus / April 2018)
Feel Free by Zadie Smith; design by Gray318 (Hamish Hamilton / February 2018)
(I got to visit Jon in his studio this summer, which was nice.)
Austerlitz by W.G. Sebald; design David Pearson (Penguin / June 2018)
Also designed by David Pearson:
Staying Power by Peter Fryer; design by David Pearson; illustration by Adam Busby (Pluto Press / September 2018)
Mad, Bad, Dangerous to Know by Colm Tóibín; design David Pearson (Viking / October 2018)
England’s Discontents by Mike Wayne; design by David Pearson (Pluto Press / November 2018)
The Book of Joan by Lidia Yuknavitch; design by Rafi Romaya; illustration by Florian Schommer (Canongate / January 2018)
Born To Be Posthumous by Mark Dery; design by Jim Tierney; photograph by Richard Corman (Little Brown & Co. / November 2018)
Congratulations to Jim and Sara on the birth of their baby last month!
Bullshit Jobs by David Graeber; design by David Litman (Simon & Schuster / May 2018)
Cherry by Nico Walker; design by Janet Hansen (Knopf / August 2018)
Also designed by Janet Hansen:
Immigrant, Montana by Amitava Kumar; design Janet Hansen (Knopf / July 2018)
Provocations by Camille Paglia; design Janet Hansen (Pantheon / October 2018)
Circe by Madeline Miller; design by Will Staehle (Little Brown & Co / April 2018)
Also designed by Will Staehle:
The Outsider by Stephen King; design by Will Staehle (Scribner / May 2018)
The Infinite Future by Tim Wirkus; design by Will Staehle (Prentice Hall / January 2018)
Codex 1962 by Sjón; design by Rodrigo Corral (MCD / September 2018)
The cover of the UK edition of Codex 1962 published by Sceptre, which features art by Owen Gent, is also beautiful.
Also designed by Rodrigo Corral Studio:
Severance by Ling Ma; design Rodrigo Corral (FSG / August 2018)
The End of the End of the Earth by Jonathan Franzen; design by Rodrigo Corral; photo by Jeroen Mantel (FSG / November 2018)
The Linden Tree by Cesar Aira; design by Rodrigo Corral (New Directions / May 2018)
The Comedown by Rebekah Frumkin; design by Rachel Willey (Henry Holt / April 2018)
Also designed by Rachel Willey:
Heartbreaker by Claudia Dey; design by Rachel Willey (Random House / August 2018)
The Pisces by Melissa Broder; design by Rachel Willey (Bloomsbury / May 2018)
The Doctor Stories by William Carlos Williams; design by Joan Wong (New Directions / September 2018)
Educated by Tara Westover; illustration by Patrik Svensson (Random House / March 2018)
Probably the most ubiquitous nonfiction book of the year (if not, in the end, the bestselling). Canada and the UK went with photographic covers. This was more memorable I thought.
Evening in Paradise by Lucia Berlin; design by Na Kim (Farrar, Straus and Giroux / November 2018)
Also designed by Na Kim:
Welcome Home by Lucia Berlin; design by Na Kim (Farrar, Straus and Giroux / November 2018)
Heavy by Kiese Laymon; design by Na Kim (Scribner / October 2018)
Certain American States by Catherine Lacey; design by Na Kim (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / August 2018)
he Fed and Lehman Brothers by Laurence M. Ball; design by Catherine Casalino (University of Cambridge Press / June 2018)
Also designed by Catherine Casalino:
The Age of Caesar by Plutarch; translation by Pamela Mensch; design by Catherine Casalino (W.W. Norton / January 2018)
Here Kitty Kitty by Jardine Libaire; design Catherine Casalino (Hogarth / June 2018)
The Female Persuasion by Meg Wolitzer; design by Ben Denzer (Riverhead Books / April 2018)
I also really liked Ben Denzer’s typographic cover for A Short Film About Disappointment by Joshua Mattson (Penguin Press / August 2018).
Feminasty by Erin Gibson; design by Anne Twomey; photograph by Ricky Middlesworth (Grand Central / September 2018)
The Feral Detective by Jonathan Lethem; design Allison Saltzman; photograph Kate Bellm (Ecco Press / November 2018)
Fox 8 by George Saunders; design by Greg Heinimann (Bloomsbury / November 2018)
Gin: Distilled by Gin Foundry; design by James Paul Jones (Ebury Press / October 2018)
Gun Love by Jennifer Clement; design by Michael Morris (Hogarth / March 2018)
Also designed by Michael Morris:
My German Brother by Chico Buarque; design by Michael Morris (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / June 2018)
Woman No. 17 by Edan Lepucki; design by Michael Morris; illustration by Oliver Wilson (Crown / February 2018)
Hippie by Paulo Coelho; design by Tyler Comrie (Knopf / September 2018)
Also designed by Tyler Comrie:
Ponti by Sharlene Teo; design by Tyler Comrie (Simon & Schuster / September 2018)
Bitwise: A Life in Code by David Auerbach; design by Tyler Comrie (Pantheon / August 2018)
There There by Tommy Orange; design by Tyler Comrie (Knopf / June 2018)
The Hole by José Revueltas; design by John Gall (New Directions / November 2018)
Also designed by John Gall:
The Frolic of the Beasts by Yukio Mishima; design John Gall (Vintage / November 2018)
Emissary by Yuko Tawada; design by John Gall (New Directions / April 2018)
(Don’t forget about the new book collecting 10 years of John Gall’s collages!)
The House of Impossible Beauties by Joseph Cassara; design by Sara Wood (Ecco / February 2018)
You can read about the design of this cover on Literary Hub.
The Infinite Blacktop by Sara Gran; design by Alex Merto (Atria Books / September 2018)
Also designed by Alex Merto:
Pretend I’m Dead by Jen Beagin; design by Alex Merto (Scribner / May 2018)
Let It Bang by RJ Young; design by Alex Merto (HMH / November 2018)
Awayland by Ramona Ausubel; design by Alex Merto (Riverhead / March 2018)
In the Distance by Hernan Diaz; design by Luke Bird (Daunt Books / June 2018)
I read the US edition of In the Distance (Coffee House Press / 2017) earlier this year. It is quite extraordinary and not what I expected — a western, but not really. I was really pleased that Daunt decided to publish it in the UK.
Also designed by Luke Bird:
Patient X by David Peace; design by Luke Bird (Faber & Faber / April 2018)
Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata; design by Luke Bird (Portobello Books / July 2018)
The Island That Disappeared by Tom Feiling; design by Marina Drukman (Melville House / March 2018)
The Italian Teacher by Tom Rachman; design by Jaya Miceli (Viking / March 2018)
Also designed by Jaya Miceli:
An American Marriage by Tayari Jones; design by Jaya Miceli (Algonquin Books / February 2018)
The Incendiaries by R.O. Kwon; design Jaya Miceli (Riverhead / July 2018)
Wasteland by W. Scott Poole; design by Jaya Miceli (Counterpoint / November 2018)
A Ladder to the Sky by John Boyne; design by Jo Thomson (Doubleday / August 2018)
Liveblog by Megan Boyle; design by Nicole Caputo (Tyrant Books / September 2018)
Also designed by Nicole Caputo:
It Needs To Look Like We Tried by Todd Robert Petersen; design by Nicole Caputo (Counterpoint / May 2019)
Tomb of the Unknown Racist by Blanche McCrary Boyd; design by Nicole Caputo (Counterpoint / May 2019)
The Gunners by Rebecca Kauffman; design by Nicole Caputo (Counterpoint / March 2018)
The Gunners — a novel about a group of misfit friends reuniting at a funeral — was a favourite in my office this year.
The Mars Room by Rachel Kushner; design by Peter Mendelsund; photograph by Nan Goldin (Scribner / May 2018)
Also designed by Peter Mendelsund:
Notes from the Fog by Ben Marcus; design Peter Mendelsund (Knopf / August 2018)
Calypso by David Sedaris; design by Peter Mendelsund (Little, Brown & Co. / May 2018)
Tell Them of Battles, Kings, and Elephants by Mathias Énard; design by Peter Mendelsund (New Directions / November 2018)
My Cat Yugoslavia by Pajtim Statovci; design by Anna Morrison (Pushkin Press / April 2018)
I thought this was a nice contrast to the cover of the US edition designed by Oliver Munday (Pantheon / April 2017). It’s interesting that only the cat’s ear makes an appearance, and the snake (a boa constrictor in the story I think?) is more prominent.
Also designed by Anna Morrison:
Odessa Stories by Isaac Babel; design by Anna Morrison (Puhskin Press / November 2018)
All the Beautiful Girls by Elizabeth J. Church, designed by Anna Morrison (Fourth Estate / March 2018)
Women by Chloe Caldwell; design by Anna Morrison (Fourth Estate / March 2018)
No Country Woman by Zoya Patel; design by Astred Hicks (Hachette Australia / August 2018)
Notes from the Fog by Ben Marcus; design by Jamie Keenan (Granta / September 2018)
Also designed by Jamie Keenan:
Perfidious Albion by Sam Byers; design Jamie Keenan; art by Emily Allchurch (Faber & Faber / August 2018)
Rock and Roll is Life by D.J. Taylor; design by Jamie Keenan (Constable / May 2018)
Impossible Owls by Brian Phillips; design Jamie Keenan (FSG / October 2018)
On Gravity by A. Zee; design by Jason Alejandro (Princeton University Press / May 2018)
Packing My Library by Alberto Manguel; design by Tom Starr (Yale University Press / March 2018)
The Perfect Nanny by Leila Slimani; design by Julianna Lee (Penguin / January 2018)
The Reservoir Tapes by Jon McGregor; design by Strick&Williams (Catapult / August 2018)
She Wants It by Jill Soloway; design by Elena Giavaldi (Crown / October 2018)
The Son of Black Thursday by Alejandro Jodorowsky; design by Richard Ljoenes (Restless Books / November 2018)
Richard Ljoenes recently talked about designing covers for Alejandro Jodorowsky — the cover of Where the Bird Sings Best was on my 2016 notable list — with Spine Magazine.
The Stars Now Unclaimed by Drew Williams; design by Jack Smyth (Simon & Schuster / August 2018)
Also designed by Jack Smyth:
The Life and Rhymes of Benjamin Zephaniah; design by Jack Smyth (Simon & Schuster / May 2018)
Yeti by Graham Hoyland; design by Jack Smyth (William Collins / May 2018)
A Station on the Path to Somewhere Better by Benjamin Wood; design by Jack Smyth (Scribner UK / June 2018)
A Superior Spectre by Angela Meyer; design by Design by Committee (Ventura / August 2018)
Swan Song by Kelleigh Greenberg-Jephcott; design by Lauren Wakefield (Hutchinson / June 2018)
Tell Me Lies by Carola Lovering; design Donna Cheng (Simon & Schuster / July 2018)
Crossing out is a thing.
Ten Arguments For Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now by Jaron Lanier; design Dan Mogford (The Bodley Head / June 2018)
Also designed by Dan Mogford:
Homeland by Walter Kempowski; design by Dan Mogford (Granta / November 2018)
A Very British Coup by Chris Mullin; design by Dan Mogford (Serpent’s Tail / 2018)
Portraits Without Frames by Lev Ozerov; design by Dan Mogford (Granta / November 2018)
There There by Tommy Orange; design by Suzanne Dean; art by Bryn Perrott (Harvill Secker / July 2018)
You can read about the design of this cover at Spine Magazine.
Also designed by Suzanne Dean:
The Largess of the Sea Maiden by Denis Johnson; design by Suzanne Dean (Jonathan Cape / February 2018)
Nervous States by William Davies; design by Suzanne Dean (Jonathan Cape / September 2018)
The Only Story by Julian Barnes; design by Suzanne Dean (Jonathan Cape / February 2018)
This Mournable Body by Tsitsi Dangarembga; design Kimberly Glyder (Graywolf / August 2018)
Also designed by Kimberly Glyder:
The Last of the Stanfields by Marc Levy; design by Kimberly Glyder (AmazonCrossing / December 2018)
Waiting for Tomorrow by Nathacha Appanah; design by Kimberly Glyder (Graywolf / April 2018)
The Music Shop by Rachel Joyce; design by Kimberly Glyder (Random House / January 2018)
Tin Man by Sarah Winman; design by Grace Han ( G.P. Putnam’s Sons / May 2018)
Everyone should read Tin Man btw. It is sad and lovely.
Also designed by Grace Han:
The Line Becomes a River by Francisco Cantú; design by Grace Han (Riverhead / February 2018)
There Will Be No Miracles Here by Casey Gerald; design by Grace Han (Riverhead Books / October 2018)
Florida by Lauren Groff; design by Grace Han (Riverhead / June 2018)
Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver; design by Ami Smithson (Faber & Faber / October 2018)
This has rather fancy edges (and endpapers I believe):
The Woman in the Window by A. J. Finn; design by Elsie Lyons (William Morrow / January 2018)
I also really liked Elisie Lyons’ glamorously noir cover for Sunburn by Laura Lippman (William Morrow / February 2018).
