Eli & Benjamin's Favourite Book Covers of 2018

December 23, 2018

Eli & Benjamin's Favourite Book Covers of 2018

The classic saying goes ''Don't judge a book by it's cover'' and yet, it's been proven time and time again that this logic is both impractical and just plain wrong. Book covers let you know what kind of book you'll be picking up before you even read the blurb, and there's an important way to highlight the work of visual artists. The poetry world has been especially adept at pairing visual art and poetry, and we feel like the rest of the literary world should follow their lead. It was so hard to choose but here are some of our favourite book covers of the year. 

FICTION

Thumb 1544029141 images

Freshwater

Akwaeke Emezi

A National Book Foundation “5 Under 35” HonoreeShortlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize Ada has always been unusual. As an infant...

More Info
Thumb 1545583162 images

Some Trick

Helen Dewitt

For sheer unpredictable brilliance, Gogol may come to mind, but no author alive today takes a reader as far as Helen DeWitt into the...

More Info
Thumb 1544310325 images

My Sister, the Serial Killer

Oyinkan Braithwaite

"Pulpy, peppery and sinister, served up in a comic deadpan...This scorpion-tailed little thriller leaves a response, and a sting, you will remember."--NEW YORK TIMES"The...

More Info
Thumb 1545583204 images

Everything Under

Daisy Johnson

**SHORTLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2018** 'Daisy Johnson is a new goddamn swaggering monster of fiction.' Lauren Groff Words are important to Gretel,...

More Info
Thumb 1544550994 images

The Frolic of the Beasts

Yukio Mishima

Translated into English for the first time, a gripping short novel about an affair gone wrong, from the acclaimed Japanese author, Yukio Mishima. Set...

More Info
Thumb 1544298660 images

Jonny Appleseed

Joshua Whitehead

Finalist, Governor General's Literary Award for Fiction Longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize A tour-de-force debut novel about a Two-Spirit Indigiqueer young man and...

More Info

NON-FICTION

Thumb 1540312659 images

Care Work

Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha

In their new, long-awaited collection of essays, Lambda Literary Award-winning writer and longtime disability justice activist and performance artist Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha explores the...

More Info
Thumb 1544029369 images

Amateur

Thomas Page McBee

From an award-winning writer whose work bristles with “hard-won strength, insight, agility, and love” (Maggie Nelson), an exquisite and troubling narrative of masculinity, violence,...

More Info
Thumb 1535393759 images

How to Write an Autobiographical Novel

Alexander Chee

From the author ofThe Queen of the Night, an essay collection exploring his education as a man, writer, and activist—and how we form our...

More Info
Thumb 1541717028 images

Well-Read Black Girl

Glory Edim

An inspiring collection of essays by black women writers, curated by the founder of the popular book club Well-Read Black Girl, on the importance...

More Info

GRAPHIC

Thumb 1533566966 images

Shit Is Real

Aisha Franz

A broken-hearted woman drifts into depression as she occupies her traveling neighbor's apartment After an unexpected breakup, a young woman named Selma experiences...

More Info
Thumb 1544300115 images

Yellow Negroes and Other Imaginary Creatures

Yvan Alagbé

A timely collection of work about race and immigration in Paris by one of France's most revered cult comic book artists.Yvan Alagbé is one...

More Info
Thumb 1544382487 images

Parallel Lives

Olivier Schrauwen

This collects six wildly inventive short comics stories that might collectively be dubbed “speculative memoir.” Schrauwen’s deadpan depictions of his and his offspring's upcoming...

More Info
Thumb 1543771649 images

The Lie And How We Told It

Tommi Parrish

Parrish’s emotionally loaded, painted graphic novel is is a visual tour de force, always in the service of the author’s themes: navigating queer desire,...

More Info
Thumb 1544473637 yourblackfriendhb 72

Your Black Friend and Other Strangers

Ben Passmore

Your Black Friend and Other Strangers is a collection of culturally charged comics by cartoonist Ben Passmore, including the Eisner Award nominated and Ignatz Award-winning...

More Info

POETRY

Thumb 1539305902 images

Holy Wild

Gwen Benaway

In her third collection of poetry, Holy Wild, Gwen Benaway explores the complexities of being an Indigenous trans women in expansive lyric poems. She...

More Info
Thumb 1544999546 9780999431221

Sheep Machine

Vi Khi Nao

SHEEP MACHINE is a textual inscape, a poetically painted nonfictional pasture where mechanical violence and visceral fear coalesce into a kind of science prosody,...

More Info
Thumb 1545584149 images

If They Come for Us

Fatimah Asghar

“A debut poetry collection showcasing both a fierce and tender new voice.”—Booklist“Elegant and playful . . . The poet invents new forms and updates classic...

More Info
Thumb 1542569643 images

ESL or You Weren't Here

Aldrin Valdez

ESL or You Weren’t Here tells the story of a queer Pinoy who immigrates to New York in the 1990s in order to be...

More Info

ANTHOLOGIES

Thumb 1545584392 41o0272bpll. sx344 bo1 204 203 200

The White Review Anthology

The White Review Anthology collects the best fiction and non-fiction published in the magazine's seven-year history, including work by Anne Carson, Chris Kraus, China...

More Info
Thumb 1539293836 images

New Poets of Native Nations

Heid E. Erdrich

A landmark anthology celebrating twenty-one Native poets first published in the twenty-first centuryNew Poets of Native Nations gathers poets of diverse ages, styles, languages,...

More Info

FRANÇAIS

Thumb 1545587864 img1c1000 9782924652138

Maman apprivoisée

Geneviève Elverum

Maman apprivoisée, écrit pendant la maladie de l’auteure, est la suite de son premier recueil de poèmes, Maman sauvage, que nous avons publié en...

More Info
Thumb 1545588274 9782330086701 0 4499162

Short : histoires courtes en bandes dessinées

Une trentaine d'histoires courtes issues de fanzines tels que Tok-Tok, Skefkef, Lab 619, Messaha proposées par des auteurs du Liban, d’Égypte, du Soudan, d’Irak, de Syrie, ou encore d’Algérie,...

More Info
Thumb 1545588044 9782897419790 1 413425

Corps

Chloé Savoie-Bernard

Nous possédons tous un corps. Certains s'en servent comme d'une armure, d'autres y pensent assez peu. On peut le soigner, le blesser volontairement, le...

More Info
Thumb 1545593289 9782353481040 0 5209251

Je suis Shingo

Kazuo Umezu

Rêveur au tempérament singulier, le jeune Satoru, en dernière année d’école primaire, se distingue un peu de ses copains et suscite souvent leur moquerie....

More Info