Page 44 - 2018 Powerlist

Arts, Fashion & Design Valerie Brandes

INTERVIEW

As founder of independent publishing house Jacaranda Books, Valerie Brandes
blazes a trail to bring fresh and international voices to the literary scene – from
Rest in Power, the story of Trayvon Martin, to the Man Booker International
longlisted Tram 83. Alexa Baracaia asks Valerie some ‘novel’ questions...

You describe yourself as a ‘Hackney literature in that book… it’s just stunning. I needed to retrain and came across a
girl’ – tell us about your childhood… publishing studies MA at City University.
I was born in Stoke Newington in a So how did a ‘Hackney girl’ get to After that I set myself up as an editorial
close family of 11 – Dad a carpenter, where you are today, via California? consultant reading manuscripts, then
Mum a seamstress. Mum came to There was no grand plan. From school got a job as office manager at Profile
the UK from Dominica in the 1950s I got a job at the Economic and Social Books – not a dream job but it was a
when she was pregnant with my big Research Council, which funded social dream publishing house. I was there
sister, arriving after my Dad. I went to science research. We would go through for a year, but I knew there wasn’t a
what was then [comprehensive] The people’s proposals and they had to next step up for me. And I still felt there
Skinners’ Company School for Girls, have a 2:1 degree. It made me think, was something missing. Where were
which really set the standard high. I joke “these people do all this fun stuff”, so the books I read as a girl growing up –
I was raised with a foot on my I applied to uni – American and black female writers from Virago, The
neck, but Mum had six Commonwealth Arts at the Women’s Press? So with the support of
daughters and thought, University of Exeter, with one my family in 2012, I set up Jacaranda.
“I can’t have anything year in the US. They enrolled me
more to stress me out.” in the University of California, Why Jacaranda?
No boyfriends, parties, doing African-American It’s a tree that in San Diego is
make-up, jewellery. My Studies. It was up on a hill everywhere – they bloom purple. I
Dad passed away when I among these giant redwood thought, “if I ever have my own business
was 17 so then it was my trees with deer running across I will call it Jacaranda”. Then I found out
Mum raising us – I can’t campus, overlooking the sea. it’s a global tree, which made it perfect.
imagine how she did it.
That must have been a What was the first book you
Was your love for books culture shock... published?
instilled at a young age? The culture shock was stronger moving I went to an event called the Black Book
My Dad bought us, over the course of from London to Exeter. It was 1987 and Swap and met Jacqueline Shaw, whose
a decade, the entire Encyclopaedia I was the second black student on that dissertation, Fashion Africa, looked
Britannica. That was my internet before course in 20 years. We were among at the sustainability of manufacturing
the internet! Then my love of language the Ruperts and Annabels. It was very fashion in Africa. It was such a great
came from singing hymns in church Right-wing and privileged. Going to book, with beautiful pictures. That
– Christina Rossetti and others, so America was 100 times better in terms launched in 2014 and the same year we
evocative. of the teaching and the ideas. It woke acquired Patrick Wilmot’s novel Glass.
me up. Our big breakthrough was striking a
Is there one book that leaps out from sales and distribution deal that saw the
your childhood? You met your husband, Sean, a books go everywhere – Waterstones,
I remember at 12 reading James musician, in California, and after Foyles, the V&A took Fashion Africa…
Baldwin’s Going to Meet the Man, about graduating moved back to live in the
the lynching of a black man. What US… Where do you see Jacaranda’s place in
was most terrifying was the people, Yes, we got married and I became a the publishing world?
how they were all so jubilant. I got bookseller at Barnes & Noble, We publish ten to 14 titles a year,
nightmares – Mum wanted to burn the in between having two kids. which is very ambitious.
book because it had such an effect I got involved in the writing In the ideal scenario we
on me. Those words gave me such a world – I had a couple of would be a member of the
visceral reaction. short stories published. Independent Alliance – mid-
Then when my daughter sized independent press like
Do you have a favourite book of all was 12 I felt it was time we Faber, Canongate. We would
time? came back to London. add so much in terms of the
The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison. I diverse voices that we publish.
buy a copy whenever a new edition How did the move into Our authors come from every
comes out. There is not a spare word of publishing come about? corner of the planet – black,

40 Powerlist 2018