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.
Hi. Hello. I hope you’re all keeping well. This month seems to have flown by so I apologise for rather rushing this out at the last minute.
I was reminded this week there are people in the world (some of whom should know better) who think that all contemporary book covers are boring and banal. I don’t really know where to start with arguments like this. It just seems objectively false to me?
Anyway, I hope these posts help dispel some of those notions and you enjoy this month’s selections….
Attention Seeking Behavior by Aea Varfis Van Warmelo; design by Michael Salu (Graywolf / May 2026)
The cover of the UK edition of Attention Seeking Behaviour published by Peninsula Press, was designed by Luke Bird.
Carryout by Hasan Dudar; design by Kathleen Lynch / Black Kat Design (University of Iowa Press / May 2026)
Complete Works of Ricardo Reis by Fernando Pessoa, translated by Patricio Ferrari & Margaret Jull Costa; design by Peter Mendelsund (New Directions / May 2026)
This is fourth Peter Mendelsund Pessoa cover for New Directions:
Dog Days by Emily Labarge; design by Jared Bartman (Transit Books / May 2026)
The Fifth Year by Marlen Haushofer, translated by Shaun Whiteside; design by Matt Dorfman (New Directions / May 2026)
Matt also designed the covers of previous Marlen Haushofer titles, The Wall and Killing Stella, for New Directions:
The Hill by Harriet Clark; design by Na Kim (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / May 2026)
Homebound by Portia Elan; design by Jaya Miceli; art by Andrea Bacca (Scribner / May 2026)
Honey by Imani Thompson; design by Poppy Loughtman (The Borough Press / May 2026)
The cover of the US edition of Honey, published by Random House, was designed by Michael Morris. Michael did a brief Q&A with Debutiful about the design.
Hunger and Thirst by Claire Fuller; design by Josie Staveley Taylor; art by Thérèse Mulgrew (Fig Tree / May 2026)
The cover the US edition of Hunger and Thirst, available from Tin House next week, was designed by Beth Steidle.
Jesus’ Son by Denis Johnson; design by Luke Bird (Granta / May 2026)
The Left and the Lucky by Willy Vlautin; design by Robbie Porter (Faber / May 2026)
Mare by Emily Haworth-Booth; design Na Kim (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / May 2026)
The cover of the UK edition of Mare, published by Granta in March, was designed by Jo Walker.
Murder Like Clockwork by Nicola Whyte; design by Jared Oriel (Union Square & Co. / May 2026)
Nerve Damage by Annakeara Stinson; design by Linda Huang (Knopf / May 2026)
New Skin by Sarah Wang; design by Oliver Munday (Little Brown & Co / May 2026)
Nonstop Bodies by Rennie McDougall; design Eli Mock; (Abrams / May 2026)
Pink Tongue Out, Blind Cat by María Paz Guerrero, translated by Robin Myers; design by Sarah Schulte (Phoneme Media / May 2026)
Returns and Exchanges by Kayla Rae Whitaker; design by Chris Allen (Random House / May 2026)
Tarantula by Eduardo Halfon, translated by Daniel Hahn; design by Adriana Tonello (Bellevue Literary Press / May 2026)
Vilhelm’s Room by Tove Ditlevsen, translated by Sophia Hersi Smith & Jennifer Russell; design by Na Kim (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / May 2026)
Na previously designed the covers of Ditlevsen’s Copenhagen trilogy.
Waiting on a Friend by Natalie Adler; design by Cassie Vu (Hogarth / May 2026)
Ways of Listening by Rollie Pemberton; design by Matthew Flute (McClelland & Stewart / May 2026)
Leave a CommentHi. Hello. I hope you’re keeping safe and well. I’m getting this month’s post out at little earlier than usual (i.e. not the 11th hour), and on a Monday no less, because I’m going to be in NYC the rest of this week for work. Even though this is a little bit of a quick and dirty post, there are still lots of covers for you to peruse and admire. Apologies if I’ve missed anything obvious and/or spectacular. I will try to catch up next month.
American Fantasy by Emma Straub; lettering by Jessica Hische; art by Vi-An Nguyen (Riverhead / April 2026)
The Blood Year Daughter by G. G. Silverman; design by Luísa Dias (Creature Publishing / April 2026)
The Ending Writes Itself by Evelyn Clarke; design by Will Staehle (Harper / April 2026)
Book covers on book covers on book covers… (I posted a whole bunch of variations on this theme back in 2014. It’s probably due an update)
Gilgamesh translated by Simon Armitage; design by Jaya Miceli (Liveright / April 2026)
It’s interesting to compare this cover to the one for the Yale University press edition translated by Sophus Helle from a couple of years ago designed by Jenny Volvovski:
Go-Between Girl by Andrea Gunraj; design by Talia Abramson (McClelland & Stewart / April 2026)
Haven by Ani Katz; design by Elizabeth Yaffe (Penguin Books / March 2026)
Hexes of the Deadwood Forest by Agnieszka Szpila, translated by Scotia Gilroy; design by Linda Huang (Pantheon / April 2026)
Like This, But Funnier by Hallie Cantor; design and illustration by Rachel Willey (Simon & Schuster / April 2026)
Nice to see a new book cover from Rachel who is busy doing art directing things at the New York Times Magazine these days I believe!
My Lover, the Rabbi by Wayne Koestenbaum; design by Jack Smyth (Granta / March 2026)
If anyone at Granta reads the blog, I would love to chat to someone about getting the design credits for your covers on a regular basis.
And the (very different) cover of the US edition of My Lover, the Rabbi published by FSG Originals last month was designed by Evan Gaffney.
No Ghosts by Max Lury; design by Tom Etherington (Peninsula Press / April 2026)
No Way Home by T. C. Boyle; design by Emily Mahon (Liveright / April 2026)
The Oak and the Larch by Sophie Pinkham; design by Georgie Proctor; art by Masabikh Akhunov (William Collins / January 2026)
A bit late to this one, but the art (which I would guess is a linocut?) is really, really nice.
Odessa by Gabrielle Sher; design by Keith Hayes; cover art by Ben Turner (Little Brown and Company / April 2026)
On the Calculation of Volume (Book IV) by Solvej Balle, translated by Sophia Hersi Smith and Jennifer Russell; design by Matt Dorfman (New Directions / April 2026)
Here are the first four books side by side:
The Pain of Others by Miguel Ángel Hernández, translated by Adrian Nathan West; design by Jared Bartman (Other Press / April 2026)
Permanence by Sophie Mackintosh; design Dan Jackson; art by Jess Allen (Hamish Hamilton / April 2026)
The cover of the US edition of Permanence, published by Avid Reader Press this month was designed by Grace Han.
Ruins, Child by Giada Scodellaro; design by John Gall; art by Lorna Simpson (New Directions / April 2026)
Transcription by Ben Lerner; design by Violet Dine, Rodrigo Corral Studio (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / April 2026)
The cover of the UK edition of Transcription, published by Granta this month, was designed by Gray318.
Verb Your Enthusiasm by Sarah L. Kaufman; design by Daniele Roa (Particular Books / April 2026)
Visitations by Julia Alvarez; design by Janet Hansen (Knopf / April 2026)
Wifehouse by Sonya Walger; design by Patrick Sullivan; art by John Worthington (Union Square & Co / April 2026)
I guess legs on covers are a thing this month?
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)
Leave a Comment
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:
Hey. I hope you’re keeping safe and well. I’m posting this late on the last day of the month, but hopefully it was worth waiting for.
I will let you get to the covers posthaste, but before I go, today (September 30th) is also Orange Shirt Day and National Day for Truth and Reconciliation in Canada, so I would like take a moment to acknowledge and remember the survivors of residential schools, their families and the kids who didn’t come home. <3
All Consuming by Ruby Tandoh; design by Jared Bartman (Knopf / September 2025)
At Last by Marisa Silver; design by Luísa Dias (Simon & Schuster / September 2025)
Audition for the Fox by Martin Cahill; design and illustration by Elizabeth Story (Tachyon Books / September 2025)
Awake by Jen Hatmaker; design by Elizabeth Yaffe (Avid Reader Press / September 2025)
Big Time by Jordan Prosser; design by Luke Bird (Dead Ink Books / September 2025)
Beyond All Reasonable Doubt, Jesus is Alive! by Melissa Lozada-Oliva; design by Luísa Dias (Astra House / September 2025)
I love that we have two grungy / pulpy covers from Luísa Dias this month…
Chasing the Dark by Ben Machell; design by Ben Prior (Abacus / August 2025)
The Collected Stories by Cixin Liu; design by Jessie Price (Head of Zeus / September 2025)
This is holographic foil just in case it’s not obvious from the above (and if someone at Head of Zeus / Bloomsbury is reading and wants to fire me a better cover image that would be great!)
Discontent by Beatriz Serrano; design by Madeline Partner (Vintage / September 2025)
With this and the cover of The Dilemmas of Working Women designed by Sarah Kellogg (featured last month), we may have a new sub-genre of ‘well dressed and distressed’. Are there other examples?
Possibly a different kind of distress, the UK edition of Discontent, published last month by Harvill Secker, was designed by Kris Potter using a photograph by Laurent Tixador.
Dogs by C. Mallon; design by Jaya Miceli (Scribner / August 2025)
Facing Infinity by Jonas Enander; design by Anna Morrison (Atlantic Books / September 2025)
For the Sun After Long Nights by Fatemeh Jamalpour & Nilo Tabrizy; design by Linda Huang; illustration by Laura Acquaviva (Pantheon / September 2025)
Great Disasters by Grady Chambers; design by Beth Steidle (Tin House / September 2025)
In the Green Heart by Richard Lloyd Parry; design by Julia Connolly; photograph by Albarran Cabrera (Jonathan Cape / August 2025)
The Hunger We Pass Down by Jen Sookfong Lee; design by Jennifer Griffiths (Erewhon Books / September 2025)
The Island of Last Things by Emma Sloley; design by Keith Hayes; art by Jose David Morales (Flatiron Books / September 2025)
The Last Jewish Joke by Michel Wieviorka; design by David Drummond (Polity Press / September 2025)
Letters in Exile by Claude McKay; design by Jenny Volvovski (Yale University Press / September 2025)
Moderation by Elaine Castillo; design by Lynn Buckley (Viking / August 2025)
The Shadow of the Mammoth by Fabio Morábito; design by Jared Bartman (Other Press / September 2025)
Is the “blob cut-out” a thing? I kind of thought it was but then I couldn’t think of any other examples except maybe this Paul Sahre / Erik Carter cover for The Lottery and Other Stories by Shirley Jackson from a few years ago, which is more of a collage really. Are they any other examples?
Swallows by Natsuo Kirino; design by Tyler Comrie (Knopf / September 2025)
The UK cover of Swallows published by Canongate last month was designed by Jack Smyth.
They All Came To Barneys by Gene Pressman; design by Colin Webber (Viking / September 2025)
Will There Ever Be Another You by Patricia Lockwood; design by Lauren Peters-Collaer (Riverhead Books / September 2025)
Lauren also designed the cover for No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood, which was on my notable list back in 2021.
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 CommentIt’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 CommentFirst episode of (the long-awaited) second season of Steve Leard‘s excellent book cover design podcast Cover Meeting is a conversation with Irish freelance designer Jack Smyth in which he discusses his work, the industry, building community, how he really feels about cover quotes, and more.
I’m a big fan of Jack’s work and it has regularly featured here over the years. He’s always helping with attributions and corrections, and generally supporting the blog, so I really appreciate the mention on the podcast. Cheers, mate.
Hey, I hope you’re safe and well. This month’s post is a big one so I’m pretty much going to let you get on with it, but before I do, I just wanted to mention that I’ve included a gallery of all this month’s covers as the bottom of the post so you can click through them all. This is in response to a reader email about the size of the covers on screen. I think the gallery looks nice, but I am worried that it’s going to play absolute havoc with the RSS / email so apologies in advance if that’s case. Anyway, enjoy this month’s covers, and let me know what you think.
Alligator Tears by Edgar Gomez; design by Arsh Raziuddin (Crown / February 2025)
Atrocity by Bruce Robbins; design by David Drummond (Stanford University Press / February 2025)
Ballerina by Patrick Modiano; design by Monograph (Yale University Press / January 2025)
Beta Vulgaris by Margie Sarsfield; design by Joanne O’Neill (W. W. Norton / February 2025)
Boyhood of Cain by Michael Amherst; design by Jack Smyth; photograph by Kirsten McKee (Faber & Faber / February 2025)
Creep by Emma van Straaten; design by Joanne O’Neill (Harper Perennial / February 2025)
Deep Cuts by Holly Brickley; design by Chris Allen (Crown / February 2025)
Dengue Boy by Michel Nieva; design by Rodrigo Corral; illustration by Sophy Hollington (Astra House / February 2025)
Fake Muse by Max Besora; design by Alban Fischer (Open Letter / February 2025)
I Love You So Much It’s Killing Us Both by Mariah Stovall; design by Luke Bird (Influx Press / February 2025)
This is the UK paperback cover. The cover of the US hardcover published by Soft Skull in February last year and designed by Jack Smyth was in March 2024’s round-up.
Immemorial by Lauren Markham; design by Anna Morrison (Transit / February 2025)
In Defence of Barbarism by Louisa Yousfi; design by Chantal Jahchan (Verso / January 2025)
Mazeltov by Eli Zuzovsky; design by Emily Mahar; art by Daniel El Dibujo (Henry Holt / February 2025)
Money To Burn by Asta Olivia Nordenhof; design by Matt Broughton; art Katrien de Blauwer (Vintage / February 2025)
The type is apparently the Lubalin-inspired Herbus designed by Eliott Grunewald.
Reading the Waves by Lidia Yuknavitch; design Lauren Peters-Collaer (Riverhead / February 2025)
Saint of the Narrow Street by William Boyle; design by Luke Bird (Soho Crime / February 2025)
Smother by Rachel Richardson; design by Hana Nakamura (W. W. Norton / February 2025)
The Stain by Rikki Ducornet; design by Daniel Benneworth-Gray (Dalkey Archive Press / February 2025)
A Time Outside This Time by Amitava Kumar; design by Tom Etherington (Vintage / February 2025)
This accompanies the paperback of My Beloved Life, published at the end of last month.
The cover of the hardcover of My Beloved Life was designed by Oliver Munday.
The Vanishing Point by Paul Theroux; design by Chris Bentham (Penguin / February 2025)
The cover of the US edition designed by Pete Garceau was on last month’s list.
The World After Gaza by Pankaj Mishra; design by Darren Haggar (Penguin Press / February 2025)
