Sarah Edmands Martin
DESIGNERAssociate Professor
University of Notre Dame
Sarah Edmands Martin
DESIGNERAssociate Professor
University of Notre Dame
Work
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The Curators: a novel
Book cover design2024
Cover design
The book cover design of Maggie Nye’s debut novel, The Curators (Northwestern University Press), uses a collage aesthetic to invoke historical trauma, archival materiality, and speculative storytelling.
In 1915 all of Atlanta is obsessed with the two-years-long trial and subsequent lynching of Jewish superintendent Leo Frank. None more so than Ana Wulf and her four young friends, who form a clubhouse-turned-Leo Frank museum in Ana’s attic on the Jewish southside of town. They call themselves the Felicitous Five: sworn to protect and represent the true story of Leo Frank, even after the news cycle has moved on. In a desperate effort to keep Frank present, they take history into their own hands—quite literally—when they build and animate a golem in Frank’s image. But their creation has consequences that extend beyond the clubhouse attic walls. This debut novel, which infuses historical fiction with magical realism, gives an unlikely voice to historical trauma.
Process
The imagery created for cover juxtaposes fragmented letterforms, historical photography from "The Atlanta Constitution," and cut-out figures to evoke the spectral presence of Leo Frank’s lynching. Tracked out and layered typography suggest contested histories, while the interplay of obscured faces and childhood imagery reflects both innocence and its corruption through dangerous obsessions. Into this archival reconstruction, language is positioned as both a site of power and instability in speculative historical fiction.
Inspiration + Iterations
Final Design
The cover features an ethereal, ghostly figure submerged in a haze, recalling both photographic documentation and the spectral nature of memory. This blurred presence suggests the golem (a being neither fully alive nor dead, existing in a liminal space, much like Leo Frank’s legacy). The juxtaposition of the sharply cut, mid-motion Victorian-dressed girl above—her feet dangling and arm outstretched—evokes a sense of animation and disruption. This visual strategy mirrors the book’s themes of girls seizing agency, intervening in history, and playing with forces beyond their control.
The desaturated teal background, too, conveys both an archival and dreamlike quality, reinforcing the blend of history and magical realism. The softness of the hues contrasts with the sharp, cut-paper elements, creating a tension between past and present, order and chaos—echoing the novel’s examination of white supremacy’s deeply entrenched structures and the girls’ attempt to rewrite the narrative.
The desaturated teal background, too, conveys both an archival and dreamlike quality, reinforcing the blend of history and magical realism. The softness of the hues contrasts with the sharp, cut-paper elements, creating a tension between past and present, order and chaos—echoing the novel’s examination of white supremacy’s deeply entrenched structures and the girls’ attempt to rewrite the narrative.
Client
Sector
Discipline
Project team
Book design
Production
Editor
Northwestern University Press
Publishing
Arts & Culture
Book Cover Design
Sarah Edmands Martin, Morgan Krehbiel
Morgan Krehbiel
Anne Gendler, Morris (Dino) Robinson, Mary Klein
Marisa Siegel
Symbolism
The faint floral embellishments along the left edge—reminiscent of pressed flowers—suggest preservation, loss, and the delicate act of curating history. Flowers, particularly those placed at memorials, allude to both mourning and reverence, hinting at the characters’ obsessive devotion to their creation and its consequences.
Overall, the cover acts as a visual synecdoche for The Curators: a haunting interplay between presence and absence, creation and destruction, history and myth. Its use of collage and layering effectively signals the novel’s exploration of fragmented memory, spectral justice, and the power of young women to shape the past and future.
About the Author
Maggie Nye is a writer and teacher whose work has been supported by MacDowell, Tin House, and the St. Albans Writer in Residence program. The short story from which this novel grew was published in Pleiades.