The Casual Optimist

Book Covers of Note, July 2025

Published July 25, 2025

Book Covers of Note, July 2025

Somehow it is the end of July, and I am once again rushing to get this done. I think it’s a decent mix of covers this month though, with some big books, some indies, a few type-only covers, some nice art, and a couple of trends to watch out for. I’m glad it’s all come together, even if it is last minute!

Thanks to everyone who took time to help me with cover images and design credits over the past couple of weeks (days!) — it’s really, really appreciated! I hope everyone is having a good summer.

Black Genius by Tre Johnson; design by Dominique Jones (Dutton / July 2025)

Fools for Love by Helen Schulman; design by Janet Hansen (Knopf / July 2025)

Janet also designed the cover of Helen Schulman’s novel Lucky Dogs, which was on my 2023 notable book covers list.

And thanks to Alban Fischer for pointing out that red lips on book covers are a bit of a thing at the moment (or maybe have been for a while?)

Harbour Doubts by Bebe Ashley; design by Jack Smyth (Banshee Press / July 2025)

Special thanks to Jack for sending me this cover while he was on vacation!

I Remember by Joe Brainard; design by David Pearson (Daunt Books / July 2025)

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

This is fun a double cover…

Oh and I’m not saying Dave likes a ripped paper motif, but I’m not not saying it either… ;-)

There might also be a thing for cars from above…

Killing Stella by Marlen Haushofer; design by Matt Dorfman (New Directions / July 2025)

Matt also designed the cover of the New Directions edition of The Wall by Marlen Haushofer, which was featured on the blog back in October 2022 (where does the time go???)

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

Ripped paper… it’s a thing.

Maggie, Or a Man and Woman Walk Into a Bar by Katie Yee; design by Grace Han (Summit Books / July 2025)

Thanks to Jaya Miceli for helping with the credit for this one!

Make Your Way Home by Carrie R. Moore; design by Beth Steidle (Tin House / July 2025)

No Sense in Wishing by Lawrence Burney; design by Janay Nachel (Atria / July 2025)

I think this is a really great (and rare!) example of a quote looking good on a cover. It doesn’t feel jammed in last minute.

One Yellow Eye by Leigh Radford; design by Kieryn Tyler (Pan Macmillan / July 2025)

Are peephole covers now a thing too?

The macabre cover of the US edition of One Yellow Eye, out this month from Gallery Books, was designed by Claire Sullivan, with art by Alex Eckman-Lawn.

The Painter’s Fire by Zara Anishanslin; design by Madeline Partner (Harvard University Press / July 2025)

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

Not to keep going about trends, but cropped faces might be a thing? Pan has the bonus creepy (peephole?) eyes though…

People With No Charisma by Jente Posthuma; design by Luke Bird (Scribe / July 2025)

The Phoenix Pencil Company by Allison King; design by Jo Thomson (HarperCollins / July 2025)

The Satisfaction Café by Kathy Wang; design by Jaya Miceli; art by Kosta Morr (Scribner / July 2025)

Whisky & Scotland by Neil M. Gunn; design and illustration by Sinem Erkas (Profile Books / July 2025)

This is just really nicely done.

Zofia Nowak’s Book of Superior Detecting by Piotr Cieplak; design and illustration by Meg Shepherd (Dialogue / June 2025)

I might generally be done with quirky-cozy (quozy? Sorry. Marketing brain) amateur sleuths, but this is a fun cover.

Book Covers of Note, June 2025

It’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?

*Piglet* by Lottie Hazell; design Beci Kelly (Transworld / January 2024)

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Book Covers of Note, May 2025

Published May 29, 2025

Book Covers of Note, May 2025

Hey, sorry, just sliding in under the wire with another slightly rushed post this month. I hope everyone is safe and well (all things considered). Let’s just get on with it shall we?

Autocorrect by Etgar Keret; design by Lauren Peters-Collaer (Riverhead / May 2025)

The Bombshell by Darrow Farr; design by Colin Webber (Pamela Dorman Books / May 2025)

(Don’t) Call Mum by Matt Wesolowski; design by Luísa Dias (Wild Hunt Books / May 2025)

You can read about Luísa Dias’s work for Wild Hunt Books in Zach Petit’s April cover round-up for PRINT.

Also, the cover of Matt Wesolowski’s book Six Stories designed by Mark Swan was featured here way back in April 2017 (which was a pretty good month for covers!)

Engines Beneath Us by Malcolm Devlin; design by Luke Bird (Influx Press / May 2025)

Food Person by Adam Roberts; design by Janet Hansen (Knopf / May 2025)

Foreign Fruit by Katie Goh; design by Beth Steidle (Tin House / May 2025)

The Holy Innocents Miguel Delibes; design by Jenny Volvovski (Yale University Press / May 2025)

Jenny has a new portfolio site so go check that out. (Also, if anyone has a higher res version of the cover for The Holy Innocents, please send it over! I’d love to have a better one. Thanks!)

Hunchback by Saou Ichikawa; design by Michael Morris (Hogarth / March 2025)

I’m a couple of months late to this one, but I thought it went quite well with the cover of Foreign Fruit.

Metallic Realms by Lincoln Michel; design by Danielle Mazzella di Bosco (Atria / May 2025)

Mothersalt by Mia Ayumo Malhotra; cover art by Yoshi Nakagawa (Alice James Books / May 2025)

Mrs. Lilienblum’s Cloud Factory by Iddo Gefen; design by Pablo Delcan (Astra House / April 2025)

Parallel Lines by Edward St. Aubyn; design by Suzanne Dean (Vintage / May 2025)

The cover of the US edition, out next month (OK, next week) from Knopf, was designed by ~~John Gall~~ Jack Smyth (sorry Jack!).

Portalmania by Debbie Urbanski; deisgn by Math Monahan (Simon & Schuster / May 2025)

Slags by Emma Jane Unsworth; design by Sarah Foster; photo by Ed Templeton (HarperCollins / May 2025)

I am a sucker for good photo selection on a cover. This photo is from Ed Templeton’s series/installation (and book) Teenage Smokers. Although it is kind of interesting to me that a book with such a British title uses a photograph by an American photographer, but it does have incredible 1990s vibes.

Sympathy for Wild Girls by Demree McGhee; design by Dana Li (Feminist Press / May 2025)

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

The cover of the UK edition, published by Daunt Books, was designed by Kishan Rajani. It’s interesting to see the differences in two covers with a similar approach…

Time and Chance by Katharine Coles; design by Joan Wong (Turtle Point Press / April 2025)

I 100% mean this in the best possible way, but this feels like a very Joan Wong cover somehow!

The True Happiness by Veena Dinavahi; design by Rachel Ake (Random House / May 2025)

The Wanderer’s Curse by Jennifer Hope Choi; design by Grace Han (W. W. Norton / May 2025)

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Christoph Niemann’s Spotted in New York City

Published May 27, 2025

Christoph Niemann’s Spotted in New York City

I love the halftone dots and spots in Christoph Niemann’s four different cover illustrations for the recent centennial issue of The New Yorker.

Book Covers of Note, April 2025

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.

The Aeneid by Virgil (University of Chicago Press) Design by Matt Avery

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…

Florida by Lauren Groff; design by Grace Han (Riverhead / June 2018)

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)

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Book Covers of Note, March 2025

Published March 27, 2025

Book Covers of Note, March 2025

Well, I don’t know about you, but I certainly didn’t miss the ceaseless chaos and constant anxiety. It is exhausting.

Anyway… I hope you’re keeping safe and well despite it all. I don’t know where March has gone, but this month’s post is another bumper edition with lots of great covers. I’m happy to have a bit more nonfiction in the mix, and there are lots of covers from indie publishers and even a university press along side the usual suspects. There are also a couple of Canadians if you’re keeping score.

Disposable by Sarah Jones; design by Keith Hayes; photograph by Susan Goldstein (Avid Reader / February 2025)

Goth by Lol Tolhurst; design by Timothy O’Donnell (Da Capo / February 2025)

This is the cover for US paperback and it feels like it should be printed with that blackest black stuff from MIT.

Update: here’s a photo from Timothy’s Instagram of the sprayed edges:

The hardcover, also designed by Timothy was featured way back in September 2023 (I was convinced it was from last year!).

How To Change History by Robin Hemley; design Ashley Muehlbauer (University of Nebraska Press / March 2025)

Integrated by Noliwe Rooks; design by Adam Maida (Pantheon / March 2025)

The Last Bell by Donald McRae; design by Craig Fraser; art by Amanda Kelley (Simon & Schuster / March 2025)

Lion by Sonya Walger; design by Katy Homans (NYRB Books / February 2025)

Luminous by Sylvia Park; design by Alex Merto (Simon & Schuster / March 2025)

Motherdom by Alex Bollen; design by Jenny Volvovski (Verso / March 2025)

I posted Jenny’s black and white cover designs for the Latvian Translator Triptych published by Open Letter earlier this month if you missed them.

Nobody Asked For This by Georgia Toews; design by Emma Dolan; art by Ginna Nebrig (Doubleday Canada / March 2025)

On Giving Up by Adam Phillips; design by Alex Merto (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / March 2024)

Yes, this is from March 2024, so I am precisely a year late posting it. Either I didn’t see it last year or I couldn’t find the credit at the time. Anyway, Alex posted or re-posted this cover relatively recently and it spoke to me.

I also thought it went quite well with this cover…

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

If you haven’t listened to Jack in conversation with Steve Leard on the Cover Meeting podcast yet, you should remedy that.

The cover of the US edition of On the Clock by Claire Baglin, published by New Directions and also out this month, was designed by Erik Carter.

The Passenger Seat by Vijay Khurana; design by Zoe Norvell (Biblioasis / March 2025)

Passing Through a Prairie Country by Dennis E. Staples; design by Nicole Caputo (Counterpoint / March 2025)

Potomac Fever by Charlotte Taylor Fryar; design by Tree Abraham (Bellevue Literary Press / March 2025)

Rain of Ruin by Richard Overy; design by David Gee (W.W. Norton / March 2025)

Rehearsals for Dying by Ariel Gore; design by Sarah Schulte (Amethyst Editions / March 2025)

A Room Above a Shop by Anthony Shapland; design by Tom Etherington (Granta / March 2025)

I compared Tom’s covers for Amitava Kumar to Peter Blake last month. This one is giving me Elsworth Kelly vibes!

Stag Dance by Torrey Peters; design by Rachel Ake (Random House / March 2025)

Rachel Ake also designed the cover of Torrey Peters’ novel Detransition Baby, which was one of my notable covers of 2021.

There Is No Place For Us by Brian Goldstone; design by Anna Kochman (Crown / March 2025)

Tongues by Anders Nilsen; design by Anders Nilsen (Pantheon / March 2025)

I don’t often post the covers of graphic novels, but I like this one a lot.

Two Truths and a Lie by Cory O’Brien; design by Tyler Comrie (Pantheon / March 2025)

This makes me think of David Pelham’s airbrushed sci-fi covers for Penguin.

Ultramarine by Mariette Navarro; design by Daniel Benneworth Gray (Deep Vellum / March 2025)

The Unworthy by Agustina Bazterrica; design by Emma Ewbank (Pushkin Press / March 2025)

The slightly less bonkers, but also fun cover of the US edition (published by Scribner this month) was designed by Math Monahan. I’m also quite partial to the definitely bonkers Polish(?) cover designed by Tomasz Majewski.

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

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Corita Kent: The Pop Art Nun

Published March 21, 2025

Corita Kent: The Pop Art Nun

I recently came across this short PBS Artbound documentary from 2021 on artist, educator, and social justice advocate Corita Kent (1918-1986), which is well worth 20 minutes of your time.

I don’t remember when I first came across Sister Corita’s work. It was probably not until I moved to Canada and became more interested in design and applying typography and lettering to art. Certainly, she was not someone I learnt about in school. It’s hard to know whether that is the result of a parochial British education, or more generalized misogyny and prejudice in art history, or a bit both. But, as the documentary makes clear, she remains a source of inspiration for artists, designers, and teachers 40 years after her death.

The ‘Ten Rules’ she helped create with the students of the Immaculate Heart College Art Department seem as relevant today as they must have at the time they were first written:

You can listen to former students, artists, community organizers, and others read and reflect on the Ten Rules here.

(Video via Letterform Archive!)

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Cover Meeting Season Two

Published March 19, 2025

Cover Meeting Season Two

First 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.

Doxology by Nell Zink; design Jack Smyth (Fourth Estate / August 2019)

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Christoph Niemann’s Vitamin N.Y.C.

Published March 7, 2025

Christoph Niemann’s Vitamin N.Y.C.

Well, in a bleak week, this is lovely…

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Latvian Translator Triptych designed by Jenny Volvovski

Published March 7, 2025

Latvian Translator Triptych designed by Jenny Volvovski

I like these elegant Jenny Volvovski cover designs for Open Letter‘s Latvian translator triptych of Berlin by Andris Kuprišs, translated by Ian Gwin, Birthday by Jana Egle, translated by Uldis Balodis, and The River by Laura Vinogradova, translated by Kaija Straumanis, all publishing this month. I think there’s something a bit early 2000’s Knopf about them.

And speaking of Jenny Volvovski, she has fun side project redesigning the covers of books she’s read, From Cover to Cover.

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Book Covers of Note, February 2025

Published February 25, 2025

Book Covers of Note, February 2025

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.