Tag: kate sinclair

Notable Book Covers of 2025

Published December 11, 2025

Notable Book Covers of 2025

*Hopscotch* by Julio Cortázar; illustration by Stephen Smith; art direction by Suzanne Dean (Vintage Classics / August 2025)

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?

*The New Dress* by Virginia Woolf; design Jim Stoddart (Penguin Classics / April 2025)

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.

*Disappoint Me* by Nicola Dinan; design by Rachel Ake; art ‘After the Ball’ by Ramon Casas i Carbo (Dial Press / May 2025)

Another strand was historical paintings of animals, which fits with the “old-timey animals” covers Patrick Redford wrote about for Defector last year.

*The Slip* by Miriam Webster; design by Typography Studio (Aniko Press / July 2025)

There was also a variation of old-timey animals that used white serif type for contrast.

*That’s All I Know* by Elisa Levi; design by Alban Fischer (Graywolf / May 2025)

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.

*Culpability* by Bruce Holsinger; design by Rodrigo Corral (Spiegal & Grau / July 2025)

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.

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

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.

*Sister Europe* by Nell Zink; design by Josie Staveley Taylor (Viking / April 2025)

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:

*Vaim* by Jon Fosse, translated by Damion Searls; design by Jared Bartman (Transit / October 2025)

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

Also designed by Arsh Raziuddin:

*Indignity* by Lea Ypi; design by Arsh Raziuddin (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / November 2025)

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:

*Voices of the Fallen* Heroes by Yukio Mishima; design by John Gall (Vintage / January 2025)

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:

Blank Space by W. David Marx; design by David Litman (Viking / November 2025)

Big Time by Jordan Prosser; design by Luke Bird (Dead Ink Books / September 2025)

Also designed by Luke Bird:

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

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:

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

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:

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

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:

*Dwelling* by Emily Hunt Kivel; design by Matt Dorfman (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / August 2025)

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:

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

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:

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

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 Devil Book* by Asta Olivia Nordenhof; design by Matt Broughton; art Katrien de Blauwer (Jonathan Cape / September 2025)

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:

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

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:

*At Last* by Marisa Silver; design by Luísa Dias (Simon & Schuster / September 2025)

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:

*On the Clock* by Claire Baglin; design by Jack Smyth (Daunt Books / March 2025)

Super Gay Poems by Stephanie Burt; design by Jaya Miceli (Harvard University Press / April 2025)

Also designed by Jaya Miceli:

*Dogs* by C. Mallon; design by Jaya Miceli (Scribner / August 2025)

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:

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

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:

*My Beloved Life* by Amitava Kumar; design by Tom Etherington (Vintage / January 2025)

Too Soon by Betty Shamieh; design by Kimberly Glyder (Avid Reader Press / January 2025)

Also designed by Kimberly Glyder:

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

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:

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

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

Also designed by Jaya Nicely:

*Zone Rouge* by Michael Jerome Plunkett; design by Jaya Nicely (Unnamed Press / September 2025)

Visions and Temptations by Harald Voetmann; design by Jamie Keenan (New Directions / August 2025)

Also designed by Jamie Keenan:

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

What Hunger by Catherine Dang; design by Maddy Angstreich; photograph by Bobby Doherty (Simon & Schuster / August 2025)

Also designed by Maddy Angstreich:

*Didion & Babitz* by Lili Anolik; design by Maddy Angstreich; photos by J. Wasser, M. Babitz (Scribner / July 2025)

Will There Ever Be Another You by Patricia Lockwood; design by Lauren Peters-Collaer (Riverhead Books / September 2025)

Also designed by Lauren Peters-Collaer:

*Audition* by Katie Kitamura; design by Lauren Peters-Collaer (Riverhead / April 2025)

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 April 2024

Published April 26, 2024

Book Covers of Note April 2024

Hey, I hope you’re safe and well. I’m a little bit ahead of schedule because fall sales conference season is upon us, and I have to be in New York for work next week. I’m less ahead than I would’ve liked — PRINT has already beaten me to the punch! — but here we are, a couple of days earlier than usual, with another look at some new and recent book covers. April is National Poetry Month in the US so there are a few poetry covers in the mix, as well as a couple of covers from independent presses, an Australian cover, and all the usual suspects.

Bones Worth Breaking by David Martinez; design by Alex Merto (MCD / April 2024)

Charlie Hustle by Keith O’Brien; design by Eli Mock (Pantheon / March 2024)

I just like the type and the colour palette here.

Cahokia Jazz by Francis Spufford; design by Henry Petrides (Faber & Faber / April 2024)

The Curse of Pietro Houdini by Derek B. Miller; design by David Gee (Avid Reader Press / January 2024)

Divided Island by Daniela Tarazona; design by Jack Smyth (Deep Vellum / April 2024)

The Formula by Joshua Robinson and Jonathan Clegg; design by Pete Garceau (Mariner Books / March 2024)

Two nonfiction sports books in one post! Does Formula One really count as a sport? Not for me, Clive. But the subtitle says it is, and a Canadian friend once told me that for something to qualify as a sport it has to endanger your life in some fundamental way, so I guess F1 qualifies under Quebec Rules for Teen Boys if nothing else.

Anyway, it might be fun to do a post of interesting sports books covers at some point if I can find the time (let me know if any great examples come to mind!).

Honey by Victor Lodata; design by Robin Bilardello (Harper / April 2023)

Kill For Me Kill For You by Steve Cavanagh; design by Laywan Kwan (Atria / March 2024)

I feel like this is a bit different for a psychological thriller? I like the type a lot.

Knife by Salman Rushdie; design by Arsh Raziuddin (Random House / April 2024)

Interestingly, there is an “eye” motif on the spine with the Random House logo in the centre. Look for it next time you’re in a bookstore.

Also, this cover isn’t the first to riff, consciously or otherwise, on the cut canvases of Italian artist Lucio Fontana. The cover of Ball by Tara Ison, designed by Kelly Winton, comes to mind. I’m sure there are other examples (David Gee’s unpublished cover for Lolita. Are the more?).

Madness by Antonia Hylton; design by Daniel Benneworth-Gray (Footnote Press / March 2024)

Memory Piece by Lisa Ko; design Grace Han (Riverhead / March 2024)

The Moon That Turns You Back by Hala Alyan; design by Vivian Lopez Rowe (Ecco / March 2024)

The Obscene Bird of Night by José Donoso; design by Joan Wong (New Directions / April 2024)

Prairie Edge by Conor Kerr; design Kate Sinclair (Strange Light / April 2024)

The Roadmap of Loss by Liam Murphy; design by Lisa White (Echo / January 2024)

I don’t post enough Australian cover designs generally, and I’m late to this one, but I like the grunginess of it.

Short War by Lily Meyer; design by Emily Mahon (Strange Object / April 2024)

Sociopath by Patric Gagne; design by Rodrigo Corral (Simon & Schuster / April 2024)

36 Ways of Writing a Vietnamese Poem by Nam Le; design by Janet Hansen (Knopf / March 2024)

It’s nice to have two big, blocky, black and white type-only covers this month.

Twelve Trees by Daniel Lewis; design by Alison Forner; illustration by Eric Nyquist (Avid Reader / March 2024)

This reminded me of Eric’s illustrations for the covers of Jeff Vandermeer’s Southern Reach trilogy designed by Charlotte Strick.

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

Weird Black Girls by Elwin Cotman; design by Michael Morris (Scribner / April 2024)

(The illustration also looks like something from Area X / the Southern Reach trilogy!)

While We Were Burning by Sara Koffi; design by Vi-An Nguyen (G.P. Putnam’s Sons / April 2024)

With My Back to the World by Victoria Chang; design by Thom Colligan (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / April 2024)

You Are Here edited by Ada Limón; design by Mary Austin Speaker; art by Enikő Katalin Eged (Milkweed / April 2024)

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Published December 19, 2023

Notable Book Covers of 2023

At the turn of the year, writer and activist Cory Doctorow coined the term “enshitification.” Although he was specifically describing the process of online services getting worse for users, it was hard not to see it everywhere in 2023.

In his annual look at the year’s best book covers for the New York Times, art director Matt Dorfman recounts a friend describing 2023 as a “year of survival”, a year of “no growth, no withering, just getting by.”

This year saw a centuries-old business contending with rounds of buyouts and layoffs, alongside an endless news cycle involving two brutal wars from which no authors, friends, enemies or strangers were immune from accountability for any unrehearsed sentiment they might voice in passing. Add to this the ongoing concern about how artificial intelligence will affect a business historically dependent upon human creativity — yet through it all, there was still the matter of making books, and their covers, to get on with.

I read Matt’s piece the same day I read an article by Kyle Chayka in the New Yorker about his search for an epochal term to “evoke the panicky incoherence of our lives of late.” The suggestions range from the bland ‘Long 2016,’ to the incredibly ominous-sounding ‘Chthulucene,’ the Lovecraftian ‘New Dark Age,’ and the frankly terrifying and plausible ‘Jackpot’ from William Gibson’s 2014 novel The Peripheral.

This was the context of life and work in 2023.

Matt notes some designers found inspiration in the zeitgeist. He’s not wrong. But, ironically perhaps, I feel less optimistic about the overall picture than he does.

At the risk of repeating what I’ve written in the past couple of years, it’s like we’re stuck in a holding pattern, circling the same design ideas. Trends have stuck around. A lot of covers feel safe. Some of this was the books themselves. I’m not sure exactly how many celebrity memoirs is too many, but I’m pretty sure we reached that point and sailed right past it in 2023. No doubt some of it is sales and marketing departments sanding down all the edges and demanding the tried and true (see Zachary Petit’s alternative best of 2023 piece on killed covers for Fast Company). But I would not be surprised if it designers were just getting caught up in the churn — too many books, too many covers, and too much other stuff to worry about.

Or maybe it’s just me.

Rouge by Mona Awad; design by Oliver Munday (Simon & Schuster / September 2023)

Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia; design by Regina Flath (Del Rey Books / July 2023)

Our Share of Night by Mariana Enriquez; design by Donna Cheng (Hogarth / September 2023)

One of the themes of the year was nostalgia, which I’m sure can also be put down to the present being pretty fucking awful. It was apparent across almost all genres, including literary fiction, but nowhere more so than in the resurgent supernatural suspense and horror categories. There were creative stylistic mashups with retro vibes, along side fastidious Stranger Things-like homages to the 1980s and Stephen King.

Looking Glass Sound by Catriona Ward; design by Katie Klimowicz (Tor / August 2023)

The Only One Left by Riley Sager; design by Kaitlin Kall (Dutton / June 2023)

Come Closer by Sara Gran; design by Caroline Johnson (Soho Press / September 2023)

One genuinely pleasant surprise was the number of interesting covers from Canadian publishers this year. They’ve been quietly risk-averse in recent years, so it was nice to see a few bolder design choices getting approved. I was happy to see a Canadian cover was one of the top picks on Literary Hub’s (very, very long) list of the best covers of 2023.

There were other things to cheer this year too.

*The Lights* by Ben Lerner; design by David Pearson (Granta / September 2023)

Spine continued to give space to designers to talk about their work in a way I’ve never been able to do consistently here. You can find their 2023 cover picks here.

David Pearson started the Book Cover Review, a website for short reviews of book covers.

Zoe Norvell’s I Need A Book Cover, a resource for book cover inspiration as well as place for authors and publishers to connect with designers, also went live.

Steve Leard launched Cover Meeting, a podcast series of in-depth interviews with cover designers (including David and Zoe among others). As Mark Sinclair notes in his piece on book cover design this year for Creative Review, Steve’s conversations shed light on wider concerns in the industry as well as each designer’s individual process. Have a listen if you haven’t already.

Thanks for reading.

The Adult by Bronwyn Fischer; design by Kate Sinclair (Random House Canada / May 2023)

Also designed by Kate Sinclair:

Landscapes by Christine Lai; design by Kate Sinclair (Doubleday Canada / May 2023)

The Wren, The Wren by Anne Enright; design by Kate Sinclair; art by Darek Grabus (McClelland & Stewart / September 2023)

The Annual Banquet of The Gravediggers’ Guild by Mathias Énard; design by John Gall (New Directions / December 2023)

I like John’s cover for Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck, also published by New Directions, a lot too.

Bariloche by Andrés Neuman; design by Alban Fischer (Open Letter / March 2023)

The Bee Sting by Paul Murray; design by Na Kim (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / August 2023)

Also designed by Na Kim:

Grand Tour by Elisa Gonzalez; design by Na Kim (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)

Close to Home by Michael Magee; design by Na Kim; photograph by Oumayma B. Tanfous (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / May 2023)

Beijing Sprawl by Xu Zechen; design by Andrew Walters (Two Lines Press / June 2023)

Berlin by Bea Setton; design by Emily Mahon; cover image by Nataša Denić (Penguin Books / May 2023)

Also designed by Emily Mahon:

Lost Believers by Irina Zhorov; design by Emily Mahon (Scribner / August 2023)

Do Tell by Lindsay Lynch; design by Emily Mahon; illustration and lettering by Studio Martina Flor (Doubleday / July 2023)

B.F.F. by Christie Tate; design by Ben Wiseman (Avid Reader Press / February 2023)

Blue Hunger by Viola Di Grado; design by Myunghee Kwon (Bloomsbury / March 2023)

Breaking and Entering by Don Gillmor; design by Michel Vrana; photograph by Joe Cohen (Biblioasis / August 2023)

Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll; design by Kaitlin Kall (Simon & Schuster / September 2023)

Brutes by Dizz Tate; design by Nicole Caputo (Catapult / February 2023)

Caret, Pilcrow and Cedilla by Adam Mars-Jones; design by Jonathan Pelham (Faber / August 2023)

I also really liked Jonny’s cover design for the UK edition of Tremor by Teju Cole, published by Faber.

Cat Prince by Michael Pedersen; design by Gray318 (Little, Brown / July 2023)

The Circle by Katherena Vermette; design by Jennifer Griffiths; art by KC Adams (Hamish Hamilton Canada / September 2023)

Chrysalis by Anna Metcalfe; design by Jack Smyth (Granta / May 2023)

Vengeance is Mine by Marie Ndiaye; design by Jack Smyth (Quercus Publishing / October 2023)

A Thread of Violence by Mark O’Connell; design by Jack Smyth (Granta / July 2023)

Mister Mister by Guy Gunaratne; design by Jack Smyth (Pantheon / October 2023)

The Complete Works of Álvaro de Campos by Fernando Pessoa; design by Peter Mendelsund (New Directions / July 2023)

The Details by Ia Genberg translated by Kira Josefsson; design Stephen Brayda; illustration Najeebah Al-Ghadban (Harpervia / August 2023)

A Dictator Calls by Ismail Kadare; design by Matt Broughton (Vintage / August 2023)

The Employees by Olga Ravn; design by Paul Sahre (New Directions / February 2023)

Excavations by Hannah Michell; design by Arsh Raziuddin (One World / July 2023)

The Girls’ Guide to Hunting and Fishing by Melissa Bank; design by Annie Atkins (Penguin / May 2023)

Glaciers by Alexis M. Smith; design by Beth Steidle (Tin House / July 2023)

Good Men by Arnon Grunberg; design by Anna Jordan (Open Letter / May 2023)

Greek Lessons by Han Kang; design by Anna Kochman (Hogarth / April 2023)

Hangman by Maya Binyam; design by Alex Merto; art by Belkis Ayón (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / August 2023)

Also designed by Alex Merto:

Monstrilio by Gerardo Sámano Córdova; design by Alex Merto (Zando / March 2023)

The Future, The Future by Adam Thirlwell; design by Alex Merto (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / October 2023)

Happy by Celina Baljeet Basra; design by Alex Merto (Astra House / November 2023)

Hope by Andrew Ridker; design by Tyler Comrie; photograph by Melissa Ann Pinney (Viking / July 2023)

Tyler Comrie’s cover for Time Without Keys by Ida Vitale, published by New Directions, is also very nice.

House Woman by Adorah Nworah; design by Jaya Nicely (Unnamed Press / June 2023)

I have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai; design by Elizabeth Yaffe (Viking / February 2023)

The Illiterate by Ágota Kristóf; design by Oliver Munday (New Directions / April 2023)

Also designed by Oliver Munday:

The Guest by Emma Cline; design by Oliver Munday (Random House / May 2023)

Life on Delay by John Hendrikson; design by Oliver Munday (Knopf / January 2023)

Island City by Laura Adamczyk; design by Jennifer Heuer (FSG Originals / March 2023)

The Joy of Consent by Manon Garcia; design by Jaya Miceli (Belknap Press / October 2023)

Also designed by Jaya Miceli:

Big Swiss by Jen Beagin; design Jaya Miceli; art by Anna Weyant (Scribner / February 2023)

The New Life by Tom Crewe; design by Jaya Miceli (Scribner / January 2023)

Julia by Sandra Newman; design by Luke Bird (Mariner / October 2023)

Also designed by Luke Bird:

Ponyboy by Eliot Duncan; design by Luke Bird (Footnote Press / June 2023)

Hangman by Maya Binyam; design by Luke Bird (Pushkin Press / August 2023)

The Last Bookseller by Gary Goodman; design by Kimberly Glyder (University of Minnesota Press / October 2023)

The Librarianist by Patrick DeWitt; design by Allison Saltzman (Ecco / July 2023)

The Love of Singular Men by Victor Heringer; design by Pablo Delcan (New Directions / September 2023)

Lucky Dogs by Helen Schulman; design by Janet Hansen; photograph by Christopher Brand (Knopf / June 2023)

Also designed by Janet Hansen:

Disruptions by Steven Millhauser; design by Janet Hansen (Alfred A. Knopf / August 2023)

The Sorrows of Others by Ada Zhang; design by Janet Hansen (Public Space Books / May 2023)

Our Migrant Souls by Héctor Tobar; design by Rodrigo Corral (MCD / May 2023)

Poverty by Matthew Desmond; design by Christopher Brand (Crown / March 2023)

Prophet by Helen MacDonald and Sin Blache; design by Dan Mogford; lettering by Martin Naumann (Vintage / August 2023)

Really Good, Actually by Monica Heisey; design by Mumtaz Mustafa; art by Sari Shryack (William Morrow & Co / January 2023)

Ripe by Sarah Rose Etter; design by Natalia Olbinski; art by Angela Faustina (Scribner / July 2023)

The Sea Elephants by Shastri Akella; design by Dave Litman (Flatiron Books / July 2023)

Shy by Max Porter; design by Carlos Esparza (Graywolf / May 2023)

Someone Who Isn’t Me by Geoff Rickly; design by Jesse Reed; art by Jesse Draxler (Rose Books / July 2023)

Sublunar by Harald Voetmann; design by Jamie Keenan (New Directions / August 2023)

Also designed by Jamie Keenan:

The Dimensions of a Cave by Greg Jackson; design by Jamie Keenan (Granta / October 2023)

Dr. No by Percival Everett; design by Jamie Keenan (Influx Press / March 2023)

The Sullivanians by Alexander Stille; design by June Park (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / June 2023)

Also designed by June Park:

The Upstairs Delicatessen by Dwight Garner; design June Park (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / October 2023)

Couplets by Maggie Millner; design by June Park (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / February 2023)

To Battersea Park by Philip Hensher; design by Jo Thomson (Fourth Estate / March 2023)

Tunnel 29 by Helena Merriman; design by Pete Garceau (PublicAffairs / January 2023)

Also designed by Pete Garceau:

Deadline by Jill Lepore; design by Pete Garceau (Liveright Books / August 2023)

Going Infinite by Michael Lewis; design by Pete Garceau (W. W. Norton / October 2023)

The Vunerables by Sigrid Nunez; design by Lauren Peters-Collaer (Riverhead / November 2023)

Also designed by Lauren Peter-Collaer:

What Napoleon Could Not Do by Dk Nnuro; design by Lauren Peters-Collaer (Riverhead / February 2023)

The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride; design by Lauren Peters-Collaer (Riverhead / August 2023)

While Supplies Last by Anita Lahey; design by David Drummond (Signal Editions / April 2023)

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Published September 29, 2023

Book Covers of Note, September 2023

Hey. I hope you’re safe and well and caught up on your podcasts, shows, and TBR pile.

I thought this was going to be a short post this month, and then it turned into a long one — or longer than expected at least. I don’t have too much to add to the covers. I’m busy, you’re busy. It’s almost October, literally no one has time for this! But there are some lovely covers this month. There’s a bit autumnal orange and ennui, some nice type, and a couple of Canadian covers (for those keeping count), and a couple of appropriately off-beat ones from our friends at New Directions.*

American Gun by Cameron McWhirter and Zusha Elinson; design by Rodrigo Corral (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / September 2023)

Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll; design by Kaitlin Kall (Simon & Schuster / September 2023)

The Circle by Katherena Vermette; design by Jennifer Griffiths; art by KC Adams (Hamish Hamilton Canada / September 2023)

Creep by Myriam Gurba; design by Clay Smith (Avid Reader Press / September 2023)

Disruptions by Steven Millhauser; design by Janet Hansen (Alfred A. Knopf / August 2023)

Fear by Robert Peckham; design by Tom Etherington (Profile / September 2023)

Goth by Lol Tolhurst; design by Timothy O’Donnell (Quercus Publishing / September 2023)

This whole thing is ridiculously in my wheelhouse. The cover photo is by the author (of course!), and there’s a fun note about trying to source the type in Timothy’s Instagram post about the design.

Grand Tour by Elisa Gonzalez; design by Na Kim (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)

I’m not sure it was the intention, but I like the trippy film title / goth art project quality of this.

How I Won a Nobel Prize by Julius Taranto; design by Lucy Kim (Little Brown & Co / September 2023)

The Lights by Ben Lerner; design by David Pearson (Granta / September 2023)

Hopefully you’ve all had chance to listen to David on the Cover Meeting podcast by now. It’s really good!

The cover of the US edition published by FSG was designed by Thom Colligan. It’s interesting that they’re similar and yet different. I wonder if it was brief or just a creative coincidence?

The Love of Singular Men by Victor Heringer; design by Pablo Delcan (New Directions / September 2023)

Love the red type on green.

Monstrilio by Gerardo Sámano Córdova; design by Alex Merto (Zando / March 2023)

This gives me decidedly 1990’s New York publishing vibes.

Starter Villain by John Scalzi; cover art by Tristan Elwell (Tor / September 2023)

This just makes me think of a corporate Behemoth.

Time Without Keys by Ida Vitale; design by Tyler Comrie (New Directions / September 2023)

We Measure the Earth With Our Bodies by Tsering Yangzom Lama; design by Mia Kwon; illustration by Grace J Kim (Bloomsbury / September 2023)

This is the paperback cover. Mia also designed the jacket of the hardcover published last year.

Wound by Oksana Vasyakina; design by Nicole Caputo; art by Jenny Barron (Catapult / September 2023)

The Wren, The Wren by Anne Enright; design by Kate Sinclair; art by Darek Grabus (McClelland & Stewart / September 2023)

I’m sure I’m not the only one to get Edward Hopper vibes from this cover.

The cover of the UK edition was designed by Suzanne Dean with a cover illustration by Anna Morrison.

*A bit of admin from last month: I finally managed to spend some time browsing a bookstore and I was able to ascertain that the cover of the US edition of Bridge by Lauren Beukes was designed by Kirin Diemont. Apologies to Kirin for not crediting her at the time in last month’s post. It’s updated now)

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Published April 26, 2022

Book Covers of Note, April 2022

We’ve almost made it to the end of April, so that’s something. Thanks to Daniel Benneworth-Gray for the mention earlier this month. It surely means I’m about to disappoint a large number of people — if I have not, in fact, already done so — but I hope you find something you like here…

The Candy House by Jennifer Egan; design by Jamie Keenan (Scribner / April 2022)

Elizabeth Finch by Julian Barnes; design by Suzanne Dean (Jonathan Cape / April 2022)

~~I believe the Elizabeth Finch cover also comes in yellow, but I wasn’t able to find a hi-res image. If anyone wants to send it over, I’ll be happy to add it.~~

The jacket also comes in yellow, which feels very on trend to me and the blue and yellow look lovely side by side. Thank you to Suzanne for taking the time to send over the image of the yellow version.

Suzanne also sent over an image of the boards for those of you curious to see what is under the jacket, peeking through the die-cuts. The gorgeous photograph is from René Groebli’s photoessay The Eye of Love.

This is the problem with seeing covers/jackets primarily online. You rarely get to appreciate these finer details. This must be a beautiful book to hold and unwrap.

But going back to cut-out circles/semi-circles for a moment. They reminded of Olga Kominek‘s cover design for The Penguin Book of Feminist Writing edited by Hannah Dawson published last year.

And I have been trying to recall what both these covers remind me of. Possibly ‘Composition of Circles and Semicircles‘ by abstract artist Sophie Taeuber-Arp?