This year at Literary Hub, we published the tenth iteration of a fan favorite end of year list: the best book covers of the year, as chosen by some of our favorite book cover designers. This feature was one of the first things I pitched as a new editor at Lit Hub, and I have to say I’m still proud of it: cover designers are artists, and they are integral to the book industry, and they almost never get the credit they deserve. (Half the time their names aren’t even listed anywhere except in tiny print on the physical jacket; I know this because every month I have to hunt for them.) It’s also, forgive me, rather heartwarming and inspiring: every year, the designers I ask are always so generous and curious in uplifting one another, and every year they hype books I’ve never seen before. It is fun.

Anyway, this year I realized that I had a decade’s worth of data, so I decided to take a look back at the last ten years of book covers by means of—you guessed it—another list.

In 2016, I asked 17 designers to talk about their favorite book covers of the year, and they came back with 60 individual covers. Not too shabby—but every year, the list grew, both in contributors and in total covers: we highlighted 64 covers in 2017, 75 in 2018, 101 in 2021, 139 in 2023. This feature has now exploded—in 2025, I cajoled 52 designers into participating, and they mentioned a whopping 173 different choices—but what the hell. We deserve nice things.

To create this list-of-lists, I included the books with the first, second, and third most mentions from each individual year; this seemed the fairest way. I did pull out a few fun stats, because that’s my thing:

The most mentioned book covers of the last 10 years:

First place (12 mentions):
Szilvia Molnar, The Nursery; cover design by Linda Huang (Pantheon, March 2023)

Second place (3-way tie, 9 mentions):
Melissa Broder, The Pisces; cover design by Rachel Willey (Hogarth, May 2018)
Yoko Ogawa, The Memory Police; cover design by Tyler Comrie (Pantheon, August 2019)
Nico Walker, Cherry; cover design by Janet Hansen (Knopf, August 2018)

Third place (5-way tie, 8 mentions):
Joe Brainard, I Remember; cover design by David Pearson (Daunt Books, July 2025)
Anna North, Outlawed; cover design by Rachel Willey (Bloomsbury, January 2021)
Pola Oloixarac, tr. Adam Morris, Mona; cover design by Thomas Colligan (FSG, March 2021)
Olga Ravn, The Employees; cover design by Paul Sahre (New Directions, February 2023)
Jeff VanderMeer, The Southern Reach series (10th Anniversary redesign); cover design by Pablo Delcan (Picador, July 2024)

The designers with the most books on the list:

First place (tie, 7 books each):

Na Kim
Lauren Peters-Collaer

Second place (5 books):

Rachel Willey

Third place (4-way tie, 4 books each):

John Gall
Janet Hansen
Linda Huang
Alex Merto

One more fun fact before the full list—only two authors have more than one book on the list: Brit Bennett and Lidia Yuknavitch. Both have two, and all four books were published by Riverhead, and funnily enough, both earlier books (The Mothers, 2016 and Verge, 2020, respectively) were designed by Rachel Willey, while both later books (The Vanishing Half, 2020, and Thrust, 2022) were designed by Lauren Peters-Collaer. This has been your fun fact.

All right, without any further ado, the most admired book covers from the last ten years:

 

2016:

First place (7 mentions):

Mike Roberts, Cannibals in Love; cover design by Na Kim (FSG Originals, September)

Second place (tie, 5 mentions each):

Rebecca Schiff, The Bed Moved, cover design by Janet Hansen (Vintage, February)

Brit Bennett, The Mothers, cover design by Rachel Willey (Riverhead, October)

Third place (5-way tie, 3 mentions each):

Carrie Brown, The Stargazer’s Sister; cover design by Oliver Munday (Knopf, December)

Chuck Klosterman, But What if We’re Wrong?; cover design by Paul Sahre (Penguin Press, June)

Leanne Shapton, Was She Pretty?; cover design by Leanne Shapton (Drawn & Quarterly, February)

Stuart Dybek, The Start of Something; cover design by Suzanne Dean, art by Marion de Man (Jonathan Cape, November)

W.G. Sebald, tr. Michael Hulse, backlist redesign; cover designs by Peter Mendelsund (New Directions, November)

*

2017:

First place (5 mentions):

Owen Egerton, Hollow; cover design by Matt Dorfman (Soft Skull, July)

Second place (4-way tie, 4 mentions each):

Beth Ann Fennelly, Heating & Cooling: 52 Micro-Memoirs; cover design by Alex Merto (W.W. Norton, October)

Josh Weil, The Age of Perpetual Light; cover design by Nick Misani (Grove, September)

Fernando Pessoa, ed. Jerónimo Pizarro, tr. Margaret Jull Costa, The Book of Disquiet; cover design by Peter Mendelsund (New Directions, August)

László Krasnzahorkai, tr. Ottilie Mulzet and George Szirtes, The World Goes On; cover design by Paul Sahre (New Directions, November)

Third place (tie, 3 mentions each): 

Gregor Hens, tr. Jen Calleja, Nicotine; cover design by John Gall (Other Press, January)

Patricia Lockwood, Priestdaddy; cover design by Rachel Willey (Riverhead, May)

*

2018:

First place (tie, 9 mentions each): 

Nico Walker, Cherry; cover design by Janet Hansen (Knopf, August)

Melissa Broder, The Pisces; cover design by Rachel Willey (Hogarth, May)

Second place (6 mentions):

José Revueltas, tr. Amanda Hopkinson and Sophie Hughes, The Hole; cover design by John Gall (New Directions, October)

Third place (tie, 5 mentions each):

David Sedaris, Calypso; cover design by Peter Mendelsund (Little, Brown, May)

Lucia Berlin, Evening in Paradise; cover design by Na Kim (FSG, November)

*

2019:

First Place (9 mentions):

Yoko Ogawa, The Memory Police; cover design by Tyler Comrie (Pantheon, August)

Second Place (6 mentions):

Myla Goldberg, Feast Your Eyes; cover design by Lauren Peters-Collaer (Scribner, April)

Third Place (5 mentions):

Tegan & Sara, High School; cover design by Na Kim (MCD, September)

*

2020:

First Place (3-way tie,  5 mentions each)

Yu Miri, tr. Morgan Giles, Tokyo Ueno Station; cover design by Lauren Peters-Collaer (Riverhead, June)

Joyce Carol Oates, Night, Sleep, Death, the Stars; cover design by Jamie Keenan (4th Estate, June)

Lidia Yuknavitch, Verge; cover design by Rachel Willey (Riverhead, February)

*

Second Place (5-way tie, 4 mentions each)

Lee Conell, The Party Upstairs; cover design by Stephanie Ross (Penguin Press, July)

Carlos Fonesca, tr. Megan McDowell, Natural History; cover design by Pablo Delcan (FSG, July)

Sarah Gerard, True Love; cover design by Joanne O’Neill (Harper, July)

Jane Hirshfield, Ledger; cover design by John Gall (Knopf, March)

Hiroko Oyamada, tr. David Boyd, The Hole; cover design by Janet Hansen (New Directions, October)

*

Third Place (7-way tie, 3 mentions each)

Brit Bennett, The Vanishing Half; cover design by Lauren Peters-Collaer (Riverhead, June)

Jean Kyoung Frazier, Pizza Girl; cover design by Emily Mahon (Doubleday, June)

Melissa Rivero, Los Falcón; cover design by Adalis Martinez (Vintage Espanol, April)

Adania Shibli, tr. Elisabeth Jaquette, Minor Detail; cover design by Oliver Munday (New Directions, May)

Dubravka Ugresic, tr. Ellen Elias-Bursac, The Age of Skin; cover design by Jack Smyth (Open Letter, November)

Wolf Wondratschek, Self Portrait with Russian Piano; cover design by Na Kim (FSG, September)

C Pam Zhang, How Much of these Hills is Gold; cover design by Grace Han (Riverhead, April)

*

2021:

First Place (tie, 8 mentions each):

Anna North, Outlawed; cover design by Rachel Willey (Bloomsbury, January)

Pola Oloixarac, tr. Adam Morris, Mona; cover design by Thomas Colligan (FSG, March)

*

Second Place (6 mentions):

Kristen Arnett, With Teeth; cover design by Lauren Peters-Collaer (Riverhead, June)

*

Third Place (5-way tie, 5 mentions each):

Jonas Eika, After the Sun; cover design by Lauren Peters-Collaer (Riverhead, August)

Chang-Rae Lee, My Year Abroad; cover design by Grace Han (Riverhead, February)

Wole Soyinka, Chronicles from the Land of the Happiest People on Earth; cover design by Linda Huang (Pantheon, September)

Joy Williams, Harrow; cover design by Kelly Blair (Knopf, September)

Richard Zenith, Pessoa: A Biography; cover design by Yang Kim (Liveright, July)

*

2022:

First place (tie, six mentions each):

Elias Canetti, I Want to Keep Smashing Myself Until I Am Whole; cover design by Alex Merto, illustration by Ian Woods (Picador, September)

Tess Gunty, The Rabbit Hutch; cover design by Linda Huang (Knopf, August)

*

Second place (3-way tie, five mentions each):

Fernando A. Flores, Valleyesque; cover design and illustration by Na Kim (MCD x FSG Originals, May)

Charles Simic, No Land in Sight; cover design by John Gall (Knopf, August)

Lidia Yuknavitch, Thrust; cover design by Lauren Peters-Collaer (Riverhead, June)

*

Third place (9-way tie (!), four mentions each):

Michael Cunningham/Virginia Woolf, The Hours/Mrs. Dalloway; cover design by Pablo Delcan (Picador, May)

Katherine J. Chen, Joan; cover design by Holly Ovenden (Hodder & Stoughton, July)

Missouri Williams, The Doloriad; cover design by Luke Bird (Dead Ink, March)

Jem Calder, Reward System; cover design by Alex Merto (FSG, July)

Yiyun Li, The Book of Goose; cover design by Na Kim (FSG, September)

Maayan Eitan, Love; cover design by Stephanie Ross (Penguin Press, March)

Gwen E. Kirby, Shit Cassandra Saw; cover design and illustration by Lydia Ortiz (Penguin Books, January)

Sheila Heti, Pure Colour; cover design by Na Kim (FSG, February)

Ling Ma, Bliss Montage; cover design by Rodrigo Corral (FSG, September)

*

2023:

First place (12 mentions):

Szilvia Molnar, The Nursery; cover design by Linda Huang (Pantheon, March)

*

Second place (8 mentions):

Olga Ravn, The Employees; cover design by Paul Sahre (New Directions, February)

*

Third place (tie, 6 mentions each):

Greg Jackson, The Dimensions of a Cave; cover design by Jamie Keenan (Granta Books, October)

Celina Baljeet Basra, Happy; cover design by Alex Merto (Astra House, November)

*

2024:

First place (8 mentions):

Jeff VanderMeer, The Southern Reach series (10th Anniversary redesign); cover design by Pablo Delcan (Picador, July)

*

Second place (tie, 7 mentions each):

Kaveh Akbar, Martyr!; cover design by Linda Huang (Knopf, January)

Liz Moore, The God of the Woods; cover design by Grace Han (Riverhead, July)

*

Third place (tie, 6 mentions each):

Solvej Balle, tr. Barbara J. Haveland, On the Calculation of Volume (Books 1 & 2); cover design by Matt Dorfman (New Directions, November)

‘Pemi Aguda, Ghostroots; cover design by Sarahmay Wilkinson, art by Day Briere (W.W. Norton, May)

*

2025:

First place (8 mentions):

Joe Brainard, I Remember; cover design by David Pearson (Daunt Books, July)

*

Second place (tie, 6 mentions each):

Rose Keating, Oddbody; cover design by Math Monahan (Simon & Schuster, July)

Caren Beilin, Sea, Poison; cover design by Jamie Keenan (New Directions, October)

*

Third place (3-way tie, 5 mentions):

Lucas Schaefer, The Slip; cover design by Jack Smyth (Simon & Schuster, June)

Michael Clune, Pan; cover design by Janet Hansen (Penguin Press, July)

Katie Kitamura, Audition; cover design by Lauren Peters-Collaer (Riverhead, April)