Let’s Talk Covers and Human Art

Y’all, when I tell you I’m in love with the cover of my new collection The Light Becomes Us, I don’t mean I like it. I mean that I squee with all the glee of a little girl given ice-cream truck money. (And not the regular ice cream truck, the Mr. Softee, only-came-around-after-bedtime, rare-treat ice cream truck.) I got very lucky and found a real human artist (I’m trying to avoid AI) who made their art available with a CC0 (full public domain, free-use) license. I managed to reach the artist so I can send her a copy of the book once it’s printed, and am still in disbelief that something so beautiful is a container for my creative work. Avoid AI if you can (it’s recombining images stolen from artists, just as much as text responses are recombinant from stolen written work) and go with human-made art. I just got the approval and some galleys for the cover of my new chapbook Toothache in the Bone (stay tuned! I’ll share soon!) and am also in love with that cover. Do we just love our own covers no matter what?