We Can Go Further: A Survey of Book Covers for Juneteenth
Growing up as a voracious reader, one of my biggest frustrations was the lack of books written by Black authors on the shelves of my local library. My second biggest frustration? The covers of the books by Black authors were either painfully generic in an effort to appeal to “everyone” (read: white readers who may be turned off by a book with an “ethnic” cover), or they were just plain corny. Thanks to passionate and vocal campaigns by Black and BIPOC readers over the last two decades, we’ve entered a moment where publishers are (finally) realizing how important, and desired, our stories are. That includes the stories that our book covers tell.
The following covers are ones that saw recognized trends or commonalities and said we can go further. They’re fresh, unique love letters to the Black adults who spent their entire childhoods never having picked up a book featuring a character that looked like them, and the kids who will never have to know what that’s like.
Don’t Call Us Dead: Poems by Danez Smith
(Graywolf Press, United States, 2017)
Art by Shikeith
This cover by Philly artist Shikeith is haunting. Perhaps oddly enough, it catches the reader’s eye for being grayscale during an era of bright, vivid covers with swirls of ambiguous shapes that became ubiquitous with Black book covers in the mid-2010s. Then you notice that the two people on the cover are stark naked, with no censoring of the penis (very uncommon), which mirrors the vulnerable and downright honest prose of Smith in this book about the Black, queer experience.
Nightcrawling: A Novel by Leila Mottley
(Knopf, United States, 2022)
Cover by Maggie Hinders
Maggie Hinders took the trend of using bright colors and elevated it with an orange background under the complementary blue outline of a Black woman swinging her box braids through the air. Box braids are a hairstyle that brings up many emotions and memories within Black women. It’s a stunning choice for the cover of a book full of dark and potentially provocative imagery.
All Boys Aren’t Blue: A Memoir-Manifesto by George M. Johnson
(Farrar, Straus and Giroux, United States, 2020)
Cover by Charly Palmer
When was the last time you saw a Black boy wearing a flower crown? Charly Palmer used his 30+ years of telling Black stories through paintings to give us this sweet, vulnerable imagery. Paired with background colors similar to that of the Bisexual Pride and Trans Pride flags, it would be a memorable image even if it wasn’t one of the first YA book covers to openly present a queer, Black boy. Or if the book itself wasn’t currently a top contender for being banned across the country.
The Body Is Not an Apology, Second Edition by Sonya Renee Taylor
(Berrett-Koehler Publisher, United States, 2021)
Cover by Irene Morris, Morris Design
This book cover is a direct answer to hundreds of years of the simultaneous hypersexualization, and dehumanization, of Black women’s bodies. It presents the author’s body in a barely censored state, setting up the reader for a book that is unflinching in its critique of the shame and oppression that’s been forced upon Black women by Western societal expectations. While the topic is one that’s been examined by many great Black female sociologists, the cover’s daring presentation sets this book apart from its predecessors.
Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor
(Penguin Young Readers Group, United States, 2011)
Art by Greg Ruth
Greg Ruth is a force within the illustrative and book design industry (contributing to the Criterion Collection, Disney, DC Comics, etc.), and his covers for The Nsibidi Scripts series will go down as some of his most most recgonized pieces. The young woman on the front of Ruth’s Akata Witch cover, one of the first to feature a main character with albinism, stares you right in the eyes as you approach the shelf. It’s fierce, mesmerizing, and most importantly, really, really cool. Following the release of Akata Witch in 2011, YA and Adult fantasy book covers began to trend toward highlighting the BIPOC main character(s), rather than hiding them behind vague designs.
Children of Virtue and Vengeance by Tomi Adeyemi
(Henry Holt and Co., United States, 2019)
Art by Sarah Jones
I’m still blown away by the sheer presence of this illustration by Sarah Jones. The painstaking clarity of each curl in the afro is incredible. The richness of the character’s dark skin beneath the light and shadows on her face almost makes up for the complete lack of dark-skinned characters on book covers across all genres in this industry. Moreso, the cover immediately communicates the overwhelming magic that fills this second in the Legacy of Orisha series by Adeyemi. It’s my personal hope that it shows the industry that people will read, and love, books featuring dark-skinned characters on the covers.
The 1619 Project: Born on the Water by Nikole Hannah-Jones and Renée Watson
(Kokila, United States, 2021)
Art by Nikkolas Smith
Children’s books by Black authors are often at the forefront of pushing and changing what we collectively see as “suitable” for kids. Nikkolas Smith’s work often reflects the meaningful conversations we have around social justice, making him perfect for capturing a topic as deep as slavery in the United States and making it understandable for young minds. Children have the capacity to know what’s right and wrong, what hurts others and what helps them, and the soft lines creating the difficult imagery of kids wading through water really gives validity to that.
Can We Please Give the Police Department to the Grandmothers? by Junauda Petrus
(Penguin Young Readers Group, United States, 2023)
Art by Kristen Uroda
This artwork, a first foray into narrative illustration by Kristen Uroda, continues to push us to validate children’s capacity to understand larger concepts. A beautiful garden, tended to by Black and brown characters, blooms between two city buildings. With help from the title, we understand the garden to be taking up the space once occupied by a police department. It’s a gorgeous daydream of an abolitionist future, presented through the colors and images that a child would easily embrace.
The City We Became by N. K. Jemisin
(Orbit Books, United States, 2020)
Cover design by Lauren Panepinto and with images by Arcangel
N. K. Jemisin continues to take the white male-dominated Fantasy genre and bend what is expected of it, both within her content and her book covers. Designed by Lauren Panepinto, this cover borrows from contemporary urban and pop art sensibilities. The colorful pop art title doesn’t immediately hint at this book’s fantasy foundation, which invites readers who may not be familiar with Jemisin’s previous work into her writing, and the work of Black fantasy. The coolest aspect of this cover: it comes to life with the use of Google Lens, an AR app.
Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark
(Tordotcom, United States, 2020)
Cover by Henry Sene Yee
No list about Black book covers would be complete without mentioning this absolutely thrilling, provocative, and unhinged 2020 cover art by Henry Sene Yee. The contrast of the Black hands in front of the Ku Klux Klan hood is instantly iconic, and uncomfortable, much like Clark’s supernatural novella. My favorite part of this design, and what I think elevates it past many mainstream covers, is the way the art takes into account what it looks like from across a bookstore: the arced title becomes an open mouth, wailing beneath blood-red eyes in the white hood. It invites the reader to get closer, despite their repulsion, much like the contents of the book itself. It’s a trailblazer, and I can only hope we see more covers that fearlessly evoke emotion like this one.▪︎
Black Garnet Books was created by Saint Paul community member Dionne Sims during the Summer of 2020 in direct response to state violence, as well as the purposeful and unconscious exclusion of Black people from the literary community. Black Garnet Books exists to address racial inequality within the publishing and literary industries, both nationally and within Minnesota. In an effort to do so, we’ve curated our shelves to focus on literature by authors and illustrators of color, ensuring that any purchase made at our store directly supports the continued telling of marginalized stories.
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