Nearly a year ago author Maureen Johnson inspired a HuffPost column that challenged its readers "to take a well-known book, then to imagine the author of that book was of the opposite gender, or was genderqueer, and imagine what that cover might look like."

She got hundreds of submissions in just 24 hours, and inspired a wonderful conversation on the gendering of cover art, and what messages we are sending with the art we choose to put on covers.  I loved reading about it then, and I still love to look at the reimagined covers now.  I can't say that I've seen much progress in the year that's passed since then, but I am glad that the conversation took place.  I'm glad if it inspired others to really analyze the cover art on the books they read and determine what messages it sends.  I hope that conversation continues.  Which is why, nearly a year later, I'm posting about it.

Here are some of the submitted coverflips.  See the full gallery here.
(Original on the left, coverflip on the right.)



















What do you think about this conversation?  Do you find it interesting?  Or do you not care what your books' cover art looks like?  Did you read any enlightening articles on the topic then/now?