Look at That Cover! Queer Africa 2

In 2015, MaThoko's Books - an imprint that publishes queer literature in Africa - had a call for submissions for the follow-up on its first anthology, the Lambda Literary award winning Queer Africa: New and Collected Fiction. Well, here's the cover for Queer Africa 2, and isn't it gorgeous!!!! This is one of those less words, and more images post ... purely because my words won't do it any justice.

The cover was designed by Danielle Clough - photographer-designer-vj-embroider - who explained her process for creating the cover, and while she mentions that 'its difficult to answer' her design process as 'every piece varies from materials purpose', she writes about the role of portraits and photography for the cover design

Keeping in line with the original I have been shooting and embroidering portraits. So for this project, photography has been a strong tool in the process.

In an article on Collosal, which focuses on Clough's work it was mentioned that the editors of Queer Africa 2, Makhosazana Xaba and Karen Martin,

... were drawn to Clough's work for the publication because of the conceptual linkage of her layered yarn to the personal narratives told in the book, which Zaba explained 'adds meaning and speaks to the zigzagging nature of our lives'.

I love the textures, the vibrant colours and how detailed the faces are. Here's the full piece.

©Danielle Clough. Source: danielleclough.com

Some of the portraits that were embroidered for the cover.

And a few of the individual pieces.

Love it!!! Definitely check out Danielle Clough's website and her Instagram for the rest of her amazing work. If I'm not mistaken, Queer Africa 2 was meant to be published earlier this year (but would need to be double check).