Today we’d like to introduce you to Hannah Jakobsen.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
Phoneme Media has been around for 5 years or so, and really changed a lot within that time. We’ve gone from publishing a few books a year, to 10 or 12, and now back down to 4 or 5 a year, which we find is our sweet spot.
A lot of that development has taken place in the time I’ve been with Phoneme. I started off as an intern, and was brought partly because of my knowledge of international graphic novels, which had been my academic specialization. So once I was hired I was for a brief period our “Comics Editor”–brief because we pretty quickly realized that we didn’t have enough work in the comics department to justify that title.
In the year and change after my time as “Comics Editor,” I gradually took on more responsibility in the company, first in publicity and marketing, then acquisitions, and now in production too. So I’ve come a long way since the time when I had a small-ish comic’s role, and am now Phoneme’s Editorial Director.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I wouldn’t say Phoneme’s road has been bumpy, but it certainly has been windy. A lot of our development as a company has had to do with us finding our sweet spot in the industry, in terms of our size– publishing 4 or 5 books a year, as opposed to just a couple or the 10-12 we once did– and our focus. At the broadest level, we’re a company that publishes books in translation, but over time we’ve found our niche. Luckily that niche in the industry coincides perfectly with the types of things we love publishing– poetry in translation, the sorts of graphic novels (in translation) that you don’t usually see in the American market, and underrepresented voices, whether that’s female authors and translators, or languages that aren’t translated into English as often as others. So almost all of our books have either a female author or translator (or both), and we have a big focus on indigenous languages. Last year we published the first ever novel translated to English from the Lingala, a language from the DRC, and next year we’re publishing the first literary translation from the Sierra Zapotec. Of course, both are great books that can stand alone. But we’re passionate about getting these voices heard.
Please tell us about Phoneme Media.
We’re a nonprofit publisher of books in translation, and our official mission is to “promoting cross-cultural understanding, connect people and ideas through translated books and films.”
It’s crazy-small the portion of books published in the U.S. that are translated– the figure that gets thrown around a lot is three percent. And Phoneme is one of a lot of really inspiring companies who are working on bringing cool literature from around the world into English. Our niche, and also what we’re most proud of, is bringing underrepresented voices into English. And I have to qualify this by saying that all translated voices are underrepresented (that three percent figure!). We focus on poetry, experimental fiction, female writers and translators, and indigenous languages.
One figure that I’m particularly proud of is that Phoneme has published, by our count, 20 percent of books from Mexico that were translated and published here.
Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
I have a lot of good memories from childhood! It was always a lot of fun visiting my mom’s side of the family in Denmark in the summer.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.phonememedia.org
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/phoneme_media/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/phonememedia/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/PhonemeMedia
Image Credit:
The photo of the inside of the book and the photo of the booth are courtesy Yesenia Vargas.
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