Salty Ink’s Judge a Book By It’s Cover

Salty Ink is a web site authored by Newfoundland writer Chad Pelley with the mandate to highlight Atlantic Canadian literary fiction and poetry. Salty Ink has held what I believe to be its first Judge a Book By It’s Cover competition. Twenty titles were selected and votes were counted. The 2009 winner is:

Migration Songs by Anna Quon

From Salty Ink:

“As much as I love good book design, we all know you can’t really judge a book by its cover. I thought it was a clever competition title and a fun way to showcase some books, but I’m glad, after a thousand votes, that Migration Songs won this competition, because as the cover suggests: this book is something different, and something good. It’s clear in the opening lines that Anna is an impressive writer, and her debut shows great promise. There is wit, humour, sadness, sincerity, compassion, and humanity in these pages. Most impressively, there is a true originality in her descriptions, they are fresh, informative, and distinctive; there is nothing dull about how she portrays things, and she provides handfuls of laugh-out-loud passages.”

The competition examines how well the design elements of the book cover tie into the meaning of the story and the reading experience.

I have thoroughly enjoyed browsing this site and have added it to my personal list of favourites.

See here for the full list of titles considered in the competition.