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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!

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)

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Book Covers of Note, August 2024

Hey, I hope you’re keeping safe and well. I feel like I just finished July’s post and now it’s the end of August. There are a few more covers from earlier in the year in this month’s post. I’m still catching up. But there’s some Canadian content, a few covers from the UK, some indie presses, and a university press, which is always nice. Enjoy the last few weeks of summer!

1974 by Francine Prose; design by High Tide (Harper / June 2024)

Thanks to Robin Bilardello and AD Milan Bozic at Harper for their help on the credit for this one! :-)

Anyone’s Ghost by August Thompson; design by Keith Hayes (Penguin Press / July 2024)

This was published last month, but I had it in my August folder. If I had to guess it was because of the author’s name. I am easily confused.

The Buddha of Suburbia by Hanif Kureishi; design by Kishan Rajani (Faber / July? 2024)

I think this came out in July too, but it looks like Faber used the ISBN of the existing 2017 edition even though there is a new cover so I don’t know for sure when it was updated (publishers: don’t do this).

Burn by Peter Heller; design Kelly Blair; painting ‘Boat Building in Maine’ (detail) by Paul Dougherty (Knopf / August 2024)

Coexistence by Billy Ray Belcourt; design by Kelly Hill; photography by Steven Beckly (Hamish Hamilton Canada / May 2024)

Dogs and Monsters by Mark Haddon; design by Suzanne Dean; illustration by Neue Gestaltung (Vintage / August 2024)

Because I am of certain age (old and mouldering like an ancient vampire hiding from the sun of contemporary pop culture) this reminded me of the cabinet art for the original Space Invaders arcade game. Hilariously, if not surprisingly, there is a Fonts in Use post about the typography of the original promo materials and cabinet art of Space Invaders. If anyone knows of a good article about the artwork itself I would love to read it.

Everything and Nothing At All by Jenny Heijun Wills; design by Terri Nimmo (Knopf Canada / August 2024)

Feeding the Monster by Anna Bogutskaya; design by Henry Petrides (Faber / August 2025)

Speaking of all things retro, Henry has posted some photos of his Letraset experiments for this cover on Instagram.

Hair for Men by Michelle Williams; design by Greg Tabor (House of Anansi / August 2025)

There is something ‘early 2000s Canlit’ about this cover. If you’d told me this was designed for Anansi by Bill Douglas in like 2004 I would’ve believed you, and I mean that in the best way. (I appreciate that only the grizzled Canadian publishing folks like me will get this reference but hey…)

Layman’s Report by Eugene Marten; design by Kate Sinclair (McClelland & Stewart / August 2024)

Mammoth by Eva Baltasar; design by Anna Morrison (And Other Stories / August 2025)

Anna also designed the covers for two previous novels by Eva Baltasar published by AOS, including a pink special edition of Permafrost (which is possibly my favourite).

Mina’s Matchbox by Yoko Ogawa; design by Suzanne Dean; illustration by Gérard DuBois (Harvill Secker / August 2024)

The cover of the US edition published Pantheon this month by was designed by Tyler Comrie.

The Murmuration by Carlos Labbé; design by Anna Jordan (Open Letter / July 2024)

Mystery Lights by Lena Valencia; design by Beth Steidle (Tin House / August 2024)

Nicked by M. T. Anderson; design by Zak Tebbal (Pantheon / July 2024)

It might be time to update the now very old (10 years!) skulls post.

Nine Minds by Daniel Tammet; design by Louis Gabaldoni (Profile Books / July 2024)

I was trying to think what this reminded me of and I think it’s either Ed Emberley’s Great Thumbprint Drawing Book or possibly the current cover of Design as Art by Bruno Munari, which (IIRC) uses drawings of faces from inside the book (but no thumbprints!).

And, also designed by Louis…

On the Roof by Tom Allan; design by Louis Gabaldoni (Profile Books / August 2024)

This is really lovely…

Plastic by Scott Guild; design by Tyler Comrie (Pantheon / February 2024)

Oof. I’m very late to this one.

Plaything by Bea Setton; design by Beci Kelly (Transworld / June 2024)

I don’t know how you would describe this particular shade — salmon pink? Financial Times pink? (Are those variations of the same thing, actually?) — but it feels like a pink covers are still a bit of thing. (Did I mention pink covers already a couple of months ago? I think I did…? Sigh. I am repeating myself. It might be time to give this up)

Some White Folks by Jennifer Chudy; design by Elisha Zepeda / Faceout Studio (University of Chicago Press / July 2024)

I like this cover a lot, but is the disembodied hug also becoming a thing? I think I mentioned this a while back too! (Pictured: the cover The Nursery by by Szilvia Molnar designed by Hayley Warnham from May last year, and a poster by Vasilis Marmatakis for the 2015 movie The Lobster)

A Termination by Honor Moore; design by Janet Hansen (Public Space / August 2024)

Obviously the details of the designs and the approaches are quite different, but the cover of A Termination reminded me of the cover of Anxiety by Samir Chopra designed by Karl Spurzem for Princeton University Press from March this year. I think it’s an interesting compare and contrast?

The Wisdom of Sheep by Rosamund Young; design by Darren Haggar (Penguin Press / August 2024)

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Book Covers of Note, September 2021

A big, messy post this month as I catch up on the new releases and some of the covers I missed over the summer. I expect the next couple of month’s might be a bit like this as I work towards my round-up of the year, so feel free to let me know about stuff that you think I’ve overlooked in 2021.

The Afghanistan Papers by Craig Whitlock; design by David Litman (Simon & Schuster / August 2021)

The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki; design by Gill Heeley (Canongate Books / September 2021)

A Calling for Charlie Barnes by Joshua Ferris; design by Gregg Kulick (Little Brown and Company / September 2021)

The China Room by Sunjeev Sahota; design by Tyler Comrie (Viking / July 2021)

Disorientation by Ian Williams; design by Lisa Jager (Random House Canada / September 2021)

The Hunter and the Old Woman by Pamela Korgemagi; design by Alysia Shewchuk (House of Anansi / August 2021)

King Richard by Michael Dobbs; design by Tyler Comrie (Knopf / May 2021)

Tyler Comrie also designed the cover of The Unwanted by Michael Dobbs. I like how the covers look related without looking the same.

Last Words on Earth by Javier Serena; design by Jack Smyth (Open Letter / September 2021)

Matrix by Lauren Groff; design by Grace Han (Riverhead / September 2021)

The cover of the UK edition was designed by Henry Petrides. He wrote about his process for SPINE.

Once More With Feeling by Sophie McCreesh; design by Jennifer Griffiths (Anchor Canada / August 2021)

Probably Ruby by Lisa Bird-Wilson; design Jennifer Griffiths (Doubleday Canada / August 2021)

The sweeps of paint brought to mind the snake on Anna Morrison‘s cover for the Pushkin Press edition of My Cat Yugoslavia from a couple of year’s ago…

Red Milk by Sjón; design by Natalie Chen; illustration by Owen Gent (Sceptre / May 2021)

The UK cover of CoDex 1962 by Sjón also features artwork by Owen Gent.

The Shimmering State by Meredith Westgate; design Chelsea McGuckin (Atria / August 2021)

Something Under the Sun by Alexandra Kleeman; design by Emma Pidsley (Fourth Estate / August 2021)

The cover of the US edition was designed by Donna Cheng.

Songs for the Flames by Juan Gabriel Vásquez; design by Alex Merto (Riverhead / August 2021)

Stranger to the Moon by Evelio Rosero; design by Janet Hansen (New Directions / September 2021)

For some reason, I was reminded of this saucy Jacob Covey cover, which I thought was killed in favour of something more (ahem) traditional, but it still exists on Amazon, so who knows? (Jacob probably knows; I do not).

The War for Gloria by Atticus Lish; design by Linda Huang (Knopf / September 2021)

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