Help Us Pick the Best Book Cover of 2020

Get your bracket and meet the competitors here, then vote on Electric Lit's social media this week

This hasn’t been an easy year for sustained, careful reading. But you know what doesn’t take any attention at all? Judging a book by its cover! That’s why we’re doing our first ever “best book cover of the year” tournament—and we want you to weigh in.

Click to open larger version

Vote for your favorites on Electric Literature’s Twitter and Instagram stories every day this week: round 1 (a whopping 16 matchups) today, round 2 Tuesday, quarterfinals Wednesday, semifinals Thursday, and the final face-off on Friday. You can familiarize yourself with the competitors and their first-round opponents below. If you want to make your own predictions, click the bracket above for a large version or download one here. The winner will receive bragging rights, which in many ways is the most any of us can hope for this year!

Sisters by Daisy Johnson vs. Hysteria by Jessica Gross

True Love by Sarah Gerard vs. Sad Janet by Lucie Britsch

Animal Wife by Lara Ehrlich vs. The Bass Rock by Evie Wyld

A Children’s Bible by Lydia Millet vs. I Hold a Wolf by the Ears by Laura van den Berg

How Much of These Hills Is Gold by C Pam Zhang vs. The Shapeless Unease by Samantha Harvey

The Seep by Chana Porter vs. Follow Me to Ground by Sue Rainsford

Sin Eater by Megan Campisi vs. The Exhibition of Persephone Q by Jessi Jezewska Stevens

Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-Joo vs. Uncanny Valley by Anna Wiener

Docile by K.M. Szpara vs. The Absurd Man by Major Jackson

Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi vs. The Disaster Tourist by Yun Ko-Eun

The Prince of Mournful Thoughts by Caroline Kim vs. And I Do Not Forgive You by Amber Sparks

Sometimes I Never Suffered by Shane McCrae vs. What Happens at Night by Peter Cameron

The Illness Lesson by Clare Beams vs. You Will Never Be Forgotten by Mary South

Show Them a Good Time by Nicole Flattery vs. The Magical Language of Others by E.J. Koh

The All-Night Sun by Diane Zinna vs. The Majesties by Tiffany Tsao

A Burning by Megha Majumdar vs. A Luminous Republic by Andrés Barba

More Like This

Exclusive Cover Reveal of “Book of Kin” by Darius Atefat-Peckham

Book of Kin hopes for greater connection through poems that wade through time and memory

Mar 20 - Electric Literature

Exclusive Cover Reveal of “Ominous Music Intensifying” by Alexandra Teague

The maximalist Americana artwork asks readers to reconsider what is beastly, what’s domestic, what’s safe, what’s homey

Mar 13 - Electric Literature

Exclusive Cover Reveal of “Unsex Me Here” by Aurora Mattia

The design is inspired by iridescent forms wobbling and rising from a ravine, on the verge of shapeshifting into something known

Feb 23 - Electric Literature
Thank You!