Birmingham Public Library Recovering the Classics Contest Deadline is September 30

. The deadline to enter the Birmingham Public Library (BPL)’s Recovering the Classics contest Friday, September 30, 2016. BPL has partnered with Books-A-Million to host the contest, which allows Alabama artists of all ages to design a cover for a classic book.

Prizes include your cover design on a classic book created by Books-A-Million’s Espresso Book Machine, Books-A-Million gift cards, and Recovering the Classics posters. To enter the contest, visit www.bplonline.org/classics. The winners will be announced by October 15, 2016 the week of October 17.

The Central Library has been hosting the main exhibit of Recovering the Classics posters on its first floor since September 1, 2016, and the exhibit concludes on September 30, 2016. Several other BPL branches will have smaller exhibits.

Recovering the Classics is a crowdsourced collection of original covers for classic books in the public domain created by illustrators, typographers, and designers of all stripes. Its partners include the Creative Action Network, Harvard Book Store, Plympton's DailyLit, the White House, the New York Public Library, and the Digital Public Library of America. The goal is to bring an exhibit of redesigned cover posters to each of the 50 states, and BPL is representing the state of Alabama.

"Don't judge a book by its cover" is a saying to evaluate something on its contents rather than its outward appearance. However, many people often judge a book by its cover to determine if it is worth reading, and many of greatest classics still wear poorly designed or auto-generated covers that fail to capture what makes these books exciting and inspiring.

“Every classic book deserves a great cover, and we cannot wait to see the new cover designs created by Alabama residents,” Laura Gentry, librarian and chair of the Recovering the Classics committee. “Through our partnership with Books-A-Million, we have amazing prizes. Who wouldn’t want their cover design printed on a book?”

Twenty entries have been submitted as of Wednesday, September 28, Gentry said. The classic book cover contest was selected in August as one of the winners of the BPL Board of Trustees Innovative Cool awards. You can find out more about Recovering the Classics at www.recoveringtheclassics.com.