50 Watts' Polish Book Cover Contest

Singeon (Nicolas Gallet), second place winner

On Tuesday, my Dad sent me to 50 Watts' Polish Book Cover Contest. Most of the entries are pretty enticing. I keep going back to look at favorites and I have that covetous feeling that I get around certain books. . . . I cruised around the internet looking for the artist who designed the cover for an edition of Knut Hamsun's Mysteries that I find particularly compelling--uncomfortable/eerie, in an attractive way--which brought me to Milton Glaser. The search and its sallies landed me on his cover for a paperback copy of Dicken's Hard Times that's been floating around the house and which Kennedy read recently, and then back to a 50 Watts' piece on Glaser.

Nosing around 50 Watts, I noticed a quote from David Pearson, who commissioned some extremely moreish designs for White's Books' classics covers that caught my eye recently. Online book lovers have been vociferously aflutter.

Some of you know that I am working on a series of poems based around Gene Hackman's filmography. Occasionally, I allow myself to fast forward, really far forward. WIPs complete; the scores to be written are written (Antz and all). Daydreaming the cover is sweet. I toy with the idea of garnering use of a photo by Richard Misrach. Oh how I wish I could pop his Playboy #97 (Marlboro Country) in here for you to see, but I can't find a paste that seems kosher so you'll just have to visit My Future Cover Art at the gallery where it lives now via the link.

Then again, I'd love to throw the book to the eye-bending talents of a genius designer/illustrator to see a tasty new surprising concoction arise.