Page 36 - 2018 Powerlist

Profiles

NEW Valerie Brandes
2018
Founder and publisher, Jacaranda Books

As founder and publisher of London’s diversity-focused,
independent Jacaranda Books, Valerie is a trailblazer in
& Design
challenging the status quo to bring fresh and international
voices to the literary scene.
An acclaimed editor and entrepreneur with more than
15 years’ experience in the book trade, Valerie began as
a bookseller for Barnes and Noble in the US, before
becoming a teacher of creative writing and working as office
manager at successful UK independent publishing house
Profile Books.
In 2012, Valerie launched Jacaranda. Her first publication
was Jacqueline Shaw’s coffee table tome Fashion Africa,
released in February 2014. Under Valerie’s leadership the
Jacaranda Books brand is increasingly recognised as the
publisher of choice for diverse writing and an example of
black excellence within publishing.
She has introduced voices from across Africa, Asia and
the Americas – to date having published more than 24
titles by authors including Irenosen Okojie (Butterfly Fish,
Speak Gigantular), Fiston Mwanza Mujila (Tram 83), and
Arts, Fashion
Bernice L. McFadden (The Book of Harlan). Jacaranda has
also acquired Rest in Power: the Enduring Life of Trayvon
Martin by Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin, the parents of
Trayvon Martin, and Once Upon a Time in Shaolin by Cyrus
Bozorgmehr, which reveals the untold story behind the Wu-
Tang Clan’s controversial album of the same name.
The publishing house has also delved into commercial
genre fiction, launching romance series From Pasta to
Pigfoot by British-Ghanaian author and entrepreneur
Frances Mensah Williams, and a new Caribbean crime-
fiction series by Jamaican author Paula Lennon that has
received industry praise.

32 Powerlist 2018