#roshanak keyghobadi

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30 Covers, 30 Days 2023: Day 16

And here we are with day 16! Put on your headphones for Children's Fiction novel The Mixtape Mystery by SarahZ. This cover was designed by the amazing returning designer, Roshanak Keyghobadi!

The Mixtape Mystery

Thirteen year old Sarah lives a typical life in Hershey, Pennsylvania until her world is turned upside down when she stumbles upon an old, mysterious mixtape in her parents’ attic. This tape, created by her long-lost uncle who disappeared in the 1980’s, isn’t an ordinary recording. It possesses the power to transport her back in time to the vibrant era of her parents’ youth.

With each song on the mixtape, Sarah embarks on a new adventure, reliving her mom's teenage experiences in the ’80’s, even meeting the uncle that until now she never knew she had.

The Mixtape Mystery is an engaging middle-reader novel that combines the magic of time travel, the nostalgia of the 1980’s, and the universal themes of family, friendship and self-discovery.

About the Author

Sarah divides her time between working in the public school system and performing in the wonderfully creative community of Lancaster, PA. She loves the unique perspective of 5th and 6th grade kids as they dance on the cusp of early childhood and adolescence. Sarah writes for them, hoping to offer mirrors and windows to kids about the complex and curious experience of childhood. The Mixtape Mystery is her first NaNoWriMo attempt and is so grateful for the motivation it’s provided!

About the Designer

Roshanak Keyghobadi is an Assistant Professor at the Visual Communications Department, Farmingdale State College - SUNY. She holds a doctoral degree in Art and Art Education from Columbia University and her MFA (Indiana University) and BFA (University of the Arts) are both in Graphic Design. She studied Visual Communication at Tehran University’s College of Fine Art prior to moving to New York. Roshanak conducts lectures, does research and writes regularly about design histories and designers in global context. Her essays have been published in the United States (AIGA Voice, Design Observer) and Iran (Neshan). She was also the managing editor of Graphis publications in New York City. Roshanak’s artworks have been exhibited in museums and galleries nationally and internationally and featured in books and magazines (Fiber art Now) and newspapers (NYTimes). She has been designing book covers for National Novel Writing Month's 30 Covers 30 Days since 2015!

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30 Covers, 30 Days 2022: Day 25

Want some body swap shenanigans? Well, day twenty five has you covered! Today, we have Fantasy novel The Quantum Ring by Laura Thompson. This cover was designed by returning designer, Roshanak Keyghobadi.

The Quantum Ring

A modern day woman gets a ring stuck on her finger at an antique store. The next day she wakes up in the body of an elven adventurer, a member of a missionary group in a world filled with magic and dragons. The elf is wearing the same ring and every night they switch bodies, searching for answers and a way to take the ring off in both realms.

About the Author

Laura Thompson works from home cabin in the woods with her husband and lots of house plants. She loves fantasy, sci-fi and horror in all mediums and her stories tend to fall into those categories. She has never let anyone read her NaNoWriMo novels

About the Designer

Roshanak Keyghobadi is an artist / educator / writer. This is her 8th year participating in NaNoWriMo! She teaches at Farmingdale State College (SUNY) and also holds private art classes at her Art Circle Studio. Roshanak loves creating collages and photomontages that are complex and fun therefore her favorite tools are a pair of scissors and a glue stick. Her works has been exhibited nationally and internationally in galleries and museums and reviewed in New York Times. You can read her essays on contemporary design in Design Observer and NESHAN and see more of her artworks on Instagram

[nanowrimo]

30 Covers, 30 Days 2021: Day 6

Today we present 30 Covers, 30 Days 2021: Day 6. This is a fascinating Women’s Fiction novel called Sergovia by Susan Katz. We love this design created by Roshanak Keyghobadi.

Segovia

Young Alice leaves university to try her luck on Alaska's commercial salmon fishing boats.

About the Author

Susan loves the sea and ships and is known to spin a yarn or two about them, or break into singing sea shanties. Letters home from summer camp at age nine launched her writing career. 

Susan’s first professional publication appeared in 1980. She has since published over 45 journal articles, edited six books, and is the creator of the independent writing programs for mental health consumers, “Write From the Heart©” and the “Recovery Narrative Project©”.  

Susan’s writing awards include: the Mensa Canada Annual Literary Contest/Short Stories; the Tom Howard/John H. Reid Poetry Contest; and she was a SAMHSA  Voice Award® Nominee for her books, newspaper articles, and editorials by and about Vancouver, Canada’s marginalized and vulnerable populations.

Susan, originally from Los Angeles, now resides in Toronto, Canada, where she writes, plays the oboe, and listens deeply to others’ stories.You can read more about her on her website: The Compassionate Oboe.

About the Artist

Roshanak’s artworks which are mostly collages and photomontages are highly detailed and playful and she enjoys the whole process of searching, cutting, pasting and creating the final compositions. Roshanak holds a doctoral degree in Art and Art Education (Columbia University) and her MFA (Indiana University) and BFA (University of the Arts) are both in Graphic Design. She is a Visiting Assistant Professor at the Visual Communications Department at Farmingdale State College and also teaches art classes and workshops at Art Circle Studio.

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30 Covers, 30 Days 2020: Day 26

Today’s novel is a Romance and Suspense novel: The Underground Menagerie by Darcy Pope and the cover is designed by Roshanak Keyghobadi.

The Underground Menagerie

“Eleanor March needed a change after the life-altering year at graduate school. What better way to do that than fly 2,000 miles away from friends and family for a tour guide job at a new museum? When El lands in Denver, she finds that the altitude isn’t the only thing she needs to get used to. On top of making sure her new apartment is secure, she manages to grab the attention of Dr. Clark Bishop, an annoyingly handsome paleontologist contracted by the museum. Through several encounters in and out of the workplace, El manages to discover his secret: he is smuggling fossils and artifacts into the United States to sell them on the Black Market. After being found out, Clark offers her the opportunity to join in on his trade. All signs pointed out that this was the change that El has been searching for. When she accepts, she’s pulled into a dangerous, yet exciting, world of secrecy and romance. But when the danger becomes lethal, El finds that she could easily be buried deep beneath the earth.”

About The Author

This author has chosen to remain anonymous.

About The Designer

Roshanak Keyghobadi is an Assistant Professor of Visual Communications at SUNY Farmingdale. She holds a doctoral degree in Art and Art Education from Columbia University and her MFA and BFA are both in graphic design. She writes regularly on contemporary art and design for publications such as Neshan, Design Observer and Voice and her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally in museums and galleries. Roshanak’s art practice is focused on mixed media collage. Follow her on Instagram!

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30 Covers 30 Days: Day 16

Every November, during National Novel Writing Month, thirty professional designers volunteer to create book cover art inspired by novels being written by aspiring authors from around the globe. Why? To encourage new, diverse voices, and help build a more creative world.  

30 Covers, 30 Days is presented in partnership with designer and author Debbie Millman.

Here’s day 16:

The Forgotten Children

Cover design by Roshanak Keyghobadi based on a novel by Young Writers Program participant Athena Conners:

Clarissa knows nothing. She had washed up on New York Harbor about a year ago. It's now 1898. When they had found her, they named her Clarissa, and Clarissa she stayed.

Living on the streets of New York wasn't easy. You have to scavenge, buy, and steal to survive. But one day when Clarissa is accused of stealing somebody's money, she is thrown headfirst into a thrilling adventure. Two boys raised in a Broadway theater. A strange future-foretelling girl. A gold star. The police hot on their trail. A dark secret. What could possibly go wrong?

Cover Design by Roshanak Keyghobadi

Roshanak Keyghobadi is an assistant professor of visual communications at SUNY Farmingdale. She holds a doctoral degree in Art and Art Education from Columbia University and her MFA and BFA are both in graphic design. She has written regularly on contemporary art and design for publications such as Neshan, Design Observer and Voice and her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally in museums and galleries. Roshanak’s recent art practice and teaching is focused on mixed media collage. Follow her on Instagram @roshanakkeyghobadi

As always, here's a forums thread!

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30 Covers, 30 Days 2017: Day Ten

Every November, during National Novel Writing Month, thirty professional designers volunteer to create book cover art inspired by novels being written by aspiring authors from around the globe. Why? To encourage new, diverse voices, and help build a more creative world.  

30 Covers, 30 Days is presented in partnership with designer and author Debbie Millman. Read more about these NaNoWriMo 2017 novels-in-progress, and the cover designers, below.

Forbidden Fruits

A Women’s Fiction novel being written this November by NaNo participant Brenda Nicholson in the United States.

In a world where growing food can be a criminal act, a group of women band together to become guerrilla gardeners for a cause. Their plan? To stealthily use open spaces in their subdivision to help provide sustenance to their poorer neighbors. They have to dodge the old nosy neighbor and local government leaders, but in the end they succeed in making lasting friendships and bringing change.

Cover Designed by Roshanak Keyghobadi

Roshanak Keyghobadi is an artist and scholar who regularly writes about contemporary art and design. She holds a doctoral degree in Art and Art Education from Columbia University and her MFA and BFA are both in Graphic Design. She blogs at artCircle.

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30 Covers 30 Days: Wrap-Up Post

November is over! NaNoWriMo has concluded.

Hopefully everyone had fun, got some words down, and is ready for whatever December brings.

First and foremost, thanks to Debbie Millman for coordinating once again. Every year, she goes above and beyond to help us put this program together. Round of applause, everyone! Also, huge thanks to the designers, without whom this whole endeavor wouldn’t be possible. These are professional designers who choose to donate their time and energy for zero money. Everyone should give them as much love as you possibly can! (A full list of designers can be found below!)

And, of course, there are the participants, who submit their synopses. Make no mistake: it’s a brave and vulnerable thing to give people a glimpse of your creativity. So thanks to everyone who submitted!

Fun Facts!

We’ve seen hard and soft science fiction, we’ve had fantasy of all shapes and sizes. We’ve had Young Adult literature, Erotica, Mysteries, Thrillers, Horror, Comedy, and whatever “Literary” is (because, ultimately, isn’t all writing literature, and thus all of it is literary by definition?) Ah well. Setting my quibbles about genre aside, here are some fascinating stats:

This year, there were 1484 submissions

932 came from NaNoWriMo participants

557 came from Young Writers Program participants

The most popular genre was Fantasy, with 451 submissions—a number with fun literary connotations.

Young Adult was a distant second with 195 submissions.

Followed by Adventure with 147

And Science Fiction with 142

Y’all are nerds, is what I’m saying. Be proud of yourselves! I really wish that every single synopsis could get its own cover, because every single one of you deserves it. Seeing the sheer variety of our participants’ imagination was a genuinely moving experience. To help illustrate people’s interests, here’s a word cloud showing all the tags that people used for their novels:

A high quality download of the word cloud is available here!

Because of our limitations with image formats on the blog, the covers posted here are usually downgraded versions of higher quality files. Go check out our daily forums threads to see higher quality versions of the covers!

Designer List!

(in order of appearance - links go to their cover designs)

Michael Braley

Kevin Perry

Alberto Rigau

Cora Woodward

Cookie Redding

Kelley Malone

Patrick King

Samantha Barnes

David Hisaya Asari

Jesse Hernandez

Lauren Vajda

Joe Schwartz

Holly Aguilar

Marvin Forte

Kimberly Weiner

Roshanak Keyghobadi

Maddy Angstreich

Joshua Ege

April Greiman

Freddy Cleveland

Sean Childers-Gray

Victoria Pickett

Courtney Glancy

Rachel Gogel

Victor Davila

Katharine Gripp

Debbie Millman

Jina Anne

Roxane Gay

This has been one of my favorite parts of working at NaNoWriMo! Thanks to everyone for sharing the covers, for taking part in the discussions, and for being involved in this incredible program. I hope next year is just as wacky and fun! -Freddy

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30 Covers, 30 Days 2018: Wrap-Up!

That’s a wrap on another NaNoWriMo, which means it’s the end of another year’s 30 Covers, 30 Days series! Whether you wrote fifty words or fifty thousand, you got your stories onto the page! So pat yourself on the back. I’ll wait here.

Excellent! I want to talk a little bit about this project; as this was my second year coordinating the series, I got to read all of your nearly three thousand synopses, and every one of them brought something unique to the table. I’m seriously blown away by how amazing your novels -- and the covers they inspired -- have turned out to be.

Before I get to the fast facts about this year’s series, I need to extend a few words of thanks.

First, immense thanks as always to the amazing Debbie Millman, for facilitating this project every year, gathering all these fantastic designers in one place, and for designing a cover herself! Thanks for all your help getting this project off the ground, and answering all my questions along the way.

This wouldn’t be possible without all the designers who volunteered to make covers this year (and in years past). You made some stunning covers, on a short deadline, for free, frequently ahead of schedule, and with enthusiasm every day. Thanks for your patience and quick responses to all of my emails, and for making covers that thirty authors will cherish, and that amazed, thrilled, puzzled, and inspired writers on the blog, forums, and beyond all month long.

If you received a cover, or just felt inspired by one, please take a moment to let these designers know how cool they are; the complete list of designers, including links to their websites and social media, is available at the end of the post.

If you want to leave some feedback, there’s a form available! This helps us tweak and tune up the project each year.

Finally, thank you to all of you who took on the challenge, submitted synopses throughout October and November, and for keeping up with the blog and forum posts every day.

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As with every year, of course, November only has thirty short days -- and with them, only thirty lucky writers selected for each edition of the project via our proprietary, time-bending, squirrel-powered synopsis algorithm.

This year, we had winners from all around the world, including from Iceland, Nigeria, and Peru. And, as novels from Young Writers made up about a quarter of submissions, there were set to be seven YWP covers. Alas, a couple of them fell through a hole in time and space and there ended up being only five; next year will have the complete set. There was also a wide range of genres represented:

We also used the keywords and tags from thousands of submissions to create a word tree!

Please give another round of applause to the designers who contributed their time and effort to this awesome project!

John Hamilton designed Enemy Music

Katie Manos designed The Ghosts of Miller Manor

Jesse Hernandez designed Apologize

Michelle Hobbs designed Autumn’s Blessing

Michael Braley designed The White Darkness

Kelly Knaga designed No Results Found

Alberto Rigau designed Shadow of Twilight

Kevin Perry designed Red Riding, P.I.

Henry Sene Yee designed The Killing Thing

Cookie Redding designed Sunsets and Tea

David Hisaya Asari designed We Could Be Heroes

Mark Pagano designed Dragon Kingdom & The Wishing Stone

Don Hollis designed Perspicuus

Richard Ljoenes designed The Girl and the Guardians

Alexandra Alcantara designed The Island

Josh Ege designed Trapped

Val Head designed Cracking Up

Traci Larson designed Monroe & Patsy: A Few Times Too Many

Eva Crawford designed Nursing Holmes

Frances Yllana designed Albion Grove

Courtney Glancy designed To Stand Tall Amongst the Stars

Christopher Simmons designed Unprompted

Tan Le designed Windycrest

Debbie Millman designed The Circle

Roshanak Keyghobadi designed Balaton

Nick Fierro designed Emu

Wesley Sueker designed Combat Mind

Ksenya Samarskaya designed The Author

Adriane Stark designed Bianca, It's Complicated!

Jina Anne designed The Sorcerer’s Maid

It’s been a blast helping coordinate 30 Covers, 30 Days once more. I’m looking forward to seeing next year’s covers!

-Nick Fierro, Editorial & Programs Intern

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30 Covers, 30 Days 2017: Wrap-Up!

And with that, we close the book on another year of frantic novelling, caffeine-fueled word sprints, dizzying plot twists, and—of course—covers! I can’t articulate enough just how much each day’s amazing cover blew us away. No part of this incredible project would have been possible without the over three thousand submissions from all of you.

Before I get to the fast facts about this year’s series, I need to extend a few words of thanks.

First, immense thanks to the great Debbie Millman for facilitating this project every year, and for designing a cover herself! Thank you for all your help getting this year’s series off the ground (and for being so quick with your email turnaround)!

It also wouldn’t be possible without all the awesome designers who made covers this year (and in years past!). Y’all came up with some stellar covers, on short notice, often ahead of schedule, and with enthusiasm every single day. Thank you for being so patient and responsive to our correspondence, and for making covers that thirty authors will cherish, and that amazed, thrilled, puzzled, and inspired writers on the blog and forums all month long. 

If you received a cover or just felt inspired by one you saw, and you have the time, please let these designers know just how cool they are; the complete list of designers, and links to their websites, is available at the end of the post.

Finally, thanks to all of you who took on the challenge and submitted synopses throughout October and November, and for keeping up with the blog and forum posts every day. 

Of course, there are only thirty days in November, and with them only thirty lucky writers selected for each edition of the project via our top-secret synopsis choosing method—let’s just say Blobby is ready for a break! 

This year, we had winners from all around the world, including Brazil, Bulgaria, and Russia. There were ten YWP covers and a wide range of genres represented:

We also used the keywords and tags from the thousands of submissions and created a “word tree.” The largest words are the most common tags.

Please give one more round of applause to the designers who contributed their time and effort to this awesome project!

Designers: 

Olivia Orr

Kayla Schmidt

Michael Braley

Kevin Perry

Jesse Hernandez

Timothy O'Donnell

Holly Aguilar

Joseph Schwartz

Justin Kuntz

Roshanak Keyghobadi

Joshua Ege

Bernardo Margulis

Michelle Hobbs

Zoe Fedeles

Elisa Watson

Emily Weiland

Randy Gregory

Martin Batt & Anders Godal

Christopher Simmons

David Asari

Shauna Lynn Panczyszyn

Jane Dorn

Jim Killian

Maribeth Kradel-Weitzel

Debbie Millman

Kim Weiner

Sean Wilkinson

Winnie Storey

Michael Stinson & Rachel Elnar

Dane Benton

It’s been an honor helping coordinate this year’s 30 Covers, 30 Days series. Looking forward to next year’s covers!

-Nick Fierro, Programs Intern