Alcestis in the Underworld – Cover Design

I bet whenever anyone imagines him/herself an accomplish writer, nine out of ten times they dream of their book’s cover, that moment they open the box and hold the finished product in their hands, gleaming and perfect. I doubt anyone ever has dreams of getting to that cover–and yet, to me, that is an alchemically fascinating process, as is any true collaboration.

The cover for Alcestis in the Underworld went through multiple iterations. My fantastic publisher at Circling Rivers probed various aspects of the writing for inspiration and quizzed me to understand the mood and style I felt appropriate for the book. There were also matters of taste and opinions about fonts. There were considerations of other titles on the market, the prevailing trends (as best we could assess them) in poetry publishing, and the goals the cover needed to achieve. The word “underworld” was a challenge in itself–too long to fit gracefully into several designs.

The idea for this treatment–I kid you not–came to me while I was falling asleep. I love old maps as both historical and artistic artefacts, and I thought of using a map as a background image. Jean, my intrepid editor, located a vintage map of Moscow, and there it is–the Garden Ring in the cross-hairs of my vision.