Text edited by Valerie Howes

The Publisher
Simon Dardick
“When it comes to designing a book cover, the less meddling that the author, editor, and publisher do, the better. The graphic artist behind the cover of Geoffrey Cook’s latest book of poems Postscript was David Drummond, an inspired designer who looks at a book with fresh eyes and usually gets a cover on his first approach. His covers are audacious yet respectful of the author’s work. When a cover doesn’t quite work on first draft, he comes up with alternatives.

The process begins with me asking the author to provide images from the book that are important to them. They also say which colours they absolutely do not like, and would not like to see on the cover. At the same time, our poetry editor Carmine Starnino is asked for his input. I read the manuscript again, selecting appropriate images and representative poems to provide a package of briefing materials for David to work with.

The cover visual for this book connects with the meaning of “postscript” – additional information that may be found in a letter. So the image and the book title become metaphors for the poems in the book that tell us of places and things — in this case, Nova Scotia and Czechoslovakia. I like this cover because I’m a sucker for doors. They open to things and places, as do the poems.”

The Designer
David Drummond
“The first question I ask myself after going through briefing materials is: how can I express this in an unusual and unpredictable way? The idea for this cover comes from Cook's title poem “Postscript”. The pile of unanswered mail seemed to be a fitting image for a poem that looks back on a loss – a relationship that ended.

Now all my sentences
echo those distances
Since the present tense went with you when you left,
Without the sense of ever signing off.

The image shows that someone has moved on or is not reachable. The image could be read in different ways but for me it has a forlorn quality that worked with the poem.

The cover of Postscript, like many of my book covers, has a lot of me in it. The image is actually the inside of my front door. I live in a 180-year-old farm house in rural Quebec. Mail is not delivered to your door in the country so the only addition I had to make was to include a mail slot which doesn't exist on my real front door.

I will always present a cover that I feel is original, knowing that it might not be accepted. As a cover designer you have to keep pushing the boundaries. If in the end you have to rein it in a bit and try another solution – so be it. Somewhere along the way, graphic designers have lost sight of the importance of concept. Even though this seems self-evident, most designers think it’s all about choosing a cool font and so they take a more "decorative" approach to design. Conceptual design is what it’s all about, period.”

The Poet
Geoffrey Cook
“Happily, I had very little to do with the cover of my book, Postscript. I say “happily” because I regarded my work with the book as poet, to be complete with the poems.

I quite like the cover. It has clarity and mystery; it is simple and highly suggestive; direct and allusive. The image of a door with mail spilled below it captures the central metaphors of the collection: love, loss, home, travel and writing. The door is a way out and in. The spill of mail on the floor can imply the resident is away or imply the writing life. And the pun is there; one of the letters has been sent by Véhicule Press – perhaps a contract? A rejection? There’s lots of mail, in any case, mainly bills no doubt, but also things of greater substance – that manila envelope...

Many people asked if the apartment door on the cover was mine. It isn’t. However, I lived in a similar apartment in Montreal’s Plateau neighborhood. My front door didn’t have a mail slot, either. In the image, the mail slot is on the “wrong side” of the door. I believe Drummond deliberately problematized the image. The “Letters” sign and slot normally sit on the outside of a door, yet the photo has been taken from the perspective of the apartment dweller. Are we inside or outside; home or away?

I have had only compliments on the book cover from friend and stranger alike – often unsolicited. This is the rare case in which one would endorse “judging a book by its cover”. People do pick up the book because of its cover; and if that’s what leads them into the poetry – fine by me.”