Book cover designers Cherie Chapman and Eric Wilder have joined forces to create Chapman & Wilder, a new studio that spans specialties and, well, the Atlantic. Chapman, a Brit, and Wilder, an American, have gathered their collective expertise in design, layouts, and marketing and have enlisted the talents of photographers and animators. They have also created a new website where their passion project lives.
With her second work of historical fiction, Jane Healey knew that she wanted to highlight a story of lesser-known women. So when she came across the story of the Red Cross Clubmobile girls, American women who volunteered to bring a piece of home to soldiers in World War II, she was instantly drawn to them. The Red Cross Clubmobile girls became the subject of her new novel, The Beantown Girls, out last February from Lake Union.
Holly Dunn speaks with a team of designers from HarperCollins, including Jessie Gang, David Curtis, Alison Klapthor & Erin Fitzsimmons. They discuss individual projects developed for HarperCollins, as well as how they work together as a team.
Writer, editor, and rare book dealer A.N. Devers believes that rare books by women are a) undervalued b) under-promoted and c) anything but ‘niche,' a cheapened term with which they are often associated. Devers decided to publicize the issue and call the literary community to action through her new Kickstarter campaign, The Second Shelf, which asks readers, writers, and rare book collectors to donate to her new hybrid literary magazine and rare book catalogue dedicated to celebrating heretofore hidden rare books by women.
Nadia Hashimi's middle-grade novel The Sky at Our Feet is full of memorable characters. As the reader progresses through the book, three rise to prominence. Intelligent, impulsive Max struggles to balance the medical requirements of her seizure disorder with her desire to be independent. Jason D, thoughtful and tenacious, races to find his aunt, hoping together they can save his Afghan mother from deportation. As Jason and Max scramble around New York, the city takes on a spirit of its own, becoming as integral to the narrative as the two children.
With words, Jen Campbell has constructed a life. For 10 years, the UK-based writer and vlogger worked as a bookseller. She creates original book-centric content for her YouTube channel and its nearly 40,000 subscribers. She teaches writing workshops and has published six books, including her first two works of fiction, out last fall.
For the final episode of Spine Season 1 we speak with Australian Book Cover Designer, Alissa Dinallo. Alissa has won many design awards including The Australian Book Design Association (ABDA) Award for Young Designer of the Year in 2015. Alissa discusses with us the catalog she created for ABDA, her illustration technique, and her lifelong love for William Morris.
"I tend to think I’m more of a curator and that the true talent of many of my favourite covers (both one’s I’ve been involved in and one’s that I admire) lie in the hand of the illustrator behind it. As a visual consumer I prefer to feel the human that created the work of art and I apply this to the covers I create. Although I love slick traditional Swiss type that’s adhering to the strictest of grids, I much prefer an opinion confidently expressed through imperfect mark making."
