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FictionAudioPopular Fiction

Thérèse Plummer

Interview by Cat, Deputy Editor

New York-based actor and audio narrator Thérèse Plummer is the voice behind more than 350 audiobooks, including all of Robyn Carr’s Virgin River, Thunder Point and Sullivan’s Crossing series, plus her standalone novels like Sunrise at Half Moon Bay. Plummer won the 2019 Audie Award for her work in the multicast audio production of Sadie by Courtney Summers and was a recent finalist in the Audies’ 2020 Best Fiction and Audiobook of the Year (multicast) categories.

How does an audiobook powerhouse like Plummer do it? Here, she shares a look into the audiobook industry and describes how narrating a new book is like meeting a new friend.

What’s a day in the studio like for you?
I get to the studio to start my session at 10 a.m. I will yuck it up with the engineers and whoever else is around, and then get into my studio for a full day of performing. I love the pomodoro technique lately, as it is fantastic for productivity and keeps my energy levels at a sustainable level. It’s a time management system that encourages people to work with the time they have, rather than against it. Using this method, you break your workday into 25-minute chunks separated by five-minute breaks. These intervals are referred to as pomodoros. After about four pomodoros, you take a longer break of about 15 to 20 minutes.

Tell me a bit about transforming books into audiobooks. How do you prepare, and what do you most enjoy about the preparation? From one project to the next, how much do you change your approach to each audiobook?
I love this question! Each book is a new friend I have just met, and in order to get to know her, I need to really listen. The book tells me everything I need to know, because the author has taken the time to create this world and the characters whose journeys I am lucky to go on and bring to life. Every story has its own personality and vibe. If I have questions regarding pronunciations, I will submit a word list to my producers and also will collaborate with the authors if I am able to ask specific questions about how they “hear” certain characters. After I read the entire book and highlight “directions” I see (e.g. he whispered, she muttered, he said in a flat voice, she roared), I will have made a new friend, so when I go into the studio to give the book a voice, it is now a dialogue with my new friend.

“Storytelling is the oldest form of entertainment and connection, and to have a voice perform a story to you is such an intimate and beautiful experience.”

What do you believe are your greatest strengths as a narrator of books? What is the most rewarding or coolest thing you get to bring to this experience through your reading?
I believe my greatest strength as a storyteller is the ability to immerse my whole self into all of the characters and trust myself to then translate that vocally. I lose myself in the story and the characters, and I think you have to do that to bring the authors world alive vocally. It is so fun to play characters like lycans, vampires, gargoyles, etc., or little kids talking to their parents, and to hear my voice become what’s in my head. I am one of eight kids in my family, and I have 15 nephews and nieces to date, so I have lots of inspiration.

Tell us about your narration of Robyn Carr’s work. How you approach romance as a narrator? (Especially kissing/love scenes!)
I was asked to audition to narrate Virgin River in 2009 at Recorded Books in NYC. They chose my voice, and none of us knew the journey we would all go on! The romance books are the same as any other story, as it is a friend I have yet to meet. The thing I love about these stories though is that each book has so many mini stories going on that it feels like a soap opera or television show while I narrate.

The love scenes are intimate, personal, passionate and sometimes funny, so as the voice of the man and the woman and the narrator, I have my work cut out for me. There is a way to soften my voice by getting closer to the microphone so I am not too soft and bring the scene to life. I have cracked myself up when the groan I emit as the man comes out more like a croak, and my engineer and I will have a good chuckle before going back and getting it right. Again, I am bringing a story alive to your ears, so the more natural and realistic I can get it, the better for you. That is my goal.

I am blessed to call Robyn a friend, and she is one of the funniest, most real, badass queens I know. I was able to narrate all of her Virgin River, Thunder Point and Sullivan’s Crossing series, as well as her standalone novels. I adore these stories and characters. I was able to audition and landed a role on season one of “Virgin River” for Netflix. To walk on set and be in Jack’s bar after bringing it to life for so many years through audio was surreal and amazing. I think they did an amazing job with the series! The best part of Robyn’s books is that she writes about people all of us know. Everyone can relate and escape into a really good story for a while. It’s healthy escapism.

Robyn Carr and Therese Plummer
Robyn Carr (left) and Thérèse Plummer

What do audiobooks offer that a book can’t? And considering how much audiobooks are booming, why do you think we’re being drawn to this medium more and more?
When I was 12 years old, I remember reading a book called Tully by Paullina Simons and being absolutely mesmerized. I couldn’t focus in school as I kept thinking about Tully and the next chapter I would get to after school. I was fully invested in this story and these characters. It was so real for me. That’s what a good story does. If I were to guess, I think when a listener finds a voice that works for them, it is the ultimate escape and experience. I have had listeners tell me they won’t leave their car until the chapter ends. Storytelling is the oldest form of entertainment and connection, and to have a voice perform a story to you is such an intimate and beautiful experience.

What’s one thing people might not expect about your role as narrator?
It is exhausting! The pomodoro technique helps me with energy, but at the end of a six- or eight-hour day, I usually come home and crash. I am used to playing one character on stage and film, but in the studio, it is a one-woman show and sometimes up to 40 characters a book. I have so much respect for my community of storytellers!

How do you take care of your voice?
Sleep is my number one voice-care. The others are vocal/diaphragm warmups before my session. Stretching my tongue, jaw, throat and face. Also lots of water, espresso (not sure that’s a good one, but is my vice) and tea. I love soups. And Airborne at the beginning and end of a session.

Tell us a bit about being a woman in the audiobook industry. Do you face any particular challenges? How have things changed over time?
The biggest change has been our union (SAG-AFTRA) negotiating contracts with publishers on our behalf to solidify our rates in the last 10 years or so. I think the biggest challenge as a woman is speaking up for a higher rate as time goes on. If I were a man, it would be less intimidating, but the good news is that my community of storytellers is filled with like-minded, strong, beautiful, talented and fierce queens who band together in support and encouragement of each other. We know our worth and ask for what we want and need. The worst thing that can happen is they say no, but it is worth the discomfort. As freelance artists, it is really scary, because if we ask and they say no, we don’t want to lose work or be seen as greedy or annoying to work with, so a lot of us stay quiet. The few times I advocated for myself and asked, it was greeted with approval, but my God, it was terrifying. I try to channel my inner vampire or werewolf strength at times. LOL.

Who in your life has had the biggest impact on your work as a narrator?
My father. He was a professional actor in his younger days, and when I was growing up, he was always singing and bringing characters in his head to life. We never knew who would be serving us our French toast. Was it a French man or an Italian man? Accents and characters galore. It was a one-man show and incredibly entertaining. He performed a one-man show of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, and every year I sat in the audience and was mesmerized how he brought every character in that story to life! I was in awe. When he retired, my brother and I took over the tradition and perform A Christmas Carol at Grey Towers in Milford, Pennsylvania, the first weekend in December every year. What a gift.

How does an audiobook powerhouse like Thérèse Plummer do it? Here, she shares a look into the audiobook industry and describes how narrating a new book is like meeting a new friend.
AudioHistorical Fiction

Ben Miles

Interview by Melinda Baker

What’s driving the audiobook renaissance? Smartphones have a lot to do with it, as do the rise of podcasts and the public’s insatiable desire for high-quality content. But when you boil it all down, audiobooks are booming because we love to hear stories, and we now have the tech and tools at our fingertips to do so anytime, anywhere.

Acclaimed English actor Ben Miles agrees. He’s the voice behind Hilary Mantel’s two-time Booker Prize-winning Wolf Hall Trilogy, which charts Thomas Cromwell’s meteoric rise and fall. The audiobook for the final novel in the series, The Mirror & the Light, was released on March 10, and new audio productions of the first two books, Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies, also read by Miles, are slated for release this summer.

“Audiobooks are doing so well for a number of reasons, but ultimately, people always love a story,” Miles says by phone from London. “Telling and listening to stories is a vital, unstoppable human instinct and desire.” 

Miles has worked in nearly every medium possible for an actor—radio, film, theater, television—and is known for his roles as Patrick Maitland in the BBC comedy “Coupling” and, more recently, Peter Townsend in the acclaimed Netflix drama “The Crown.” He also spent years playing Cromwell in Tony Award-nominated stage adaptations of Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies. This is Miles’ first audiobook project, and he says he’s loved getting back into Cromwell’s head and revisiting 16th-century England.

“Telling and listening to stories is a vital, unstoppable human instinct and desire.” 

It’s no wonder that Mantel personally selected Miles to narrate her books. He knows these stories inside and out, and he and Mantel have worked closely during the audiobook productions, exchanging lengthy emails about Cromwell’s motivations and desires. Miles’ familiarity with Mantel’s portrayal of Cromwell pervades his performance of The Mirror & the Light, which traces Cromwell’s fall from greatness, beginning with the aftermath of Anne Boleyn’s beheading and ending with his own. Miles’ voice carries the power-hungry statesman’s monumental final act with ease and a delicate nuance, as only someone with a deep understanding of the story could.

The Mirror & the Light“With such great writing like this, you can’t put your thing on it too much,” Miles says. “You have to be a kind of neutral filter. There is no need to embellish it with any kind of tricks you may want to do. You just have to tell it, to be a kind of invisible medium that connects a reader to the writer’s imagination. You ultimately want the listener to forget about you. That’s your job done.”

The Mirror & the Light has been one of this year’s biggest print releases, selling more than 95,000 copies in its first three days. The audiobook was also hotly anticipated, which isn’t surprising given the surge in popularity of the format, both among those who consider themselves avid readers and those who don’t.

According to the Audio Publishers Association (APA), audiobooks are by far the fastest growing format in the publishing industry and have driven double-digit revenue growth for the past seven years. To give you a clearer sense of the demand: When Amazon acquired Audible in 2008, it had 88,000 titles; now it has more than 470,000.

Audiobooks are the fastest growing format in the publishing industry, driving double-digit revenue growth for the past seven years.

Then came 2020, which has brought the publishing industry to its knees. As coronavirus shutdowns swept across the nation in March and April, masses of people turned to audiobooks. Libro.fm, the Seattle-based audiobook company that launched the #ShopBookstoresNow campaign to benefit independent bookstores during this period of layoffs and closures, grew its membership by 300% from February to March, raising its total audiobook listening by 70%.

“Years ago, you’d gather in a room, you’d sit in the same spot and focus your attention on your radio, and you’d listen to music or radio dramas or something like that,” Miles muses. “Now, we have access to incredible stories all the time. I love that you can be driving or doing the washing up, but also be in Tudor England in 1536 at the same time. It’s absolutely magical.”

There are, of course, downsides, namely that audiobooks and similar on-demand forms of entertainment enable us to isolate ourselves. “But I think that’s one of the reasons why theater is still so alive,” Miles says. “There is still something so powerful about being in a group of people who go to that one place at that one time and witness something together that will never actually happen again. There is still a place for that in the world.”

It’s clear that audiobooks are becoming an art form in their own right. More titles and easier access are certainly growing audiobook listenership, but publishing houses are also pouring resources into more ambitious productions to enhance the listening experience—think immersive soundscapes, surround sound 3D audio and, best of all, improved narrations, often by A-list television, film and theater talent. Want Elisabeth Moss to read The Handmaid’s Tale to you as you sit in traffic? Or to listen to Michelle Obama read her hit memoir, Becoming, while you weed your garden? Wish granted. When readers need to get lost in a story, their favorite actors and actresses can now facilitate that with voices alone.

The real challenge of this unique kind of performance is creating a world and characters without a visual element. As Miles explains, when an actor is performing onstage or on-screen, he or she can say a line of dialogue one way but express it differently with the face or body. “That tension between what you say and what is expressed physically is often what’s exciting about drama,” Miles says. “With audiobooks, you have to put all that information into your voice and create a world and characters with just that. It’s a really interesting process. I like how it strips me of the tools I have in acting and leaves me with just one thing.”

ALSO IN BOOKPAGE: Read our review of The Mirror & the Light.

Narrating an audiobook can also be a rigorous endeavor. On top of acting instincts, narrators need physical and vocal stamina. The Mirror & the Light is 784 pages long, and the audiobook clocks in at over 38 hours. But Miles has done a lot of voice-over work as well as some radio plays, so the process was familiar. “It’s just the length and scale that’s new for me,” he says. “And although I did quite a bit of research for the audiobooks, goodness knows how much work I would have had to do if I hadn’t been in the shows and came into these books cold. I was very lucky in that I was able to tap into what I’ve experienced already. When voicing the characters in the book, and there are many, I recalled how the other actors in the shows played them or remembered where Cromwell was in the story and what his trajectory looked like at that point. I could kind of slide right back into it.”

Mantel’s writing also made things easier, Miles adds. “Often we’d be in the studio, and I’d see a great big pile of A4 paper and think, ‘Oh my, OK, here we go.’ But I’d lose track of time and almost forget where I was. The stories are so compelling and the characters are so vivid that it carries you along, if you let it. We’d go back and review, maybe edit a couple of words. But that was about it, because it’s so beautifully written.”

Acclaimed English actor Ben Miles talks about what it's like to read Hilary Mantel's award-winning trilogy, and the ever-growing appeal of audiobooks.
Children's & YAAudioGraphic Novels & Comics

Kelly Gildea & Julie Wilson

Interview by Penguin Random House Audio

This interview was conducted and sponsored by Penguin Random House Audio. 

When Stars Are Scattered, by Omar Mohamed and Newbery Honor-winning author and artist Victoria Jamieson, tells the true story of Omar Mohamed’s childhood in a refugee camp in Kenya, caring for his brother, Hassan, who has special needs. When Omar has the opportunity to go to school, he knows it might be a chance to change their future…but it would also mean leaving the only family member he has left.

The audiobook edition of When Stars Are Scattered, read by actor Faysal Ahmed (Captain Phillips) and a full cast, stars Somali actors and speakers, with music, effects, and authentic background narration in Somali. Here, audiobook producers Kelly Gildea and Julie Wilson discuss how they worked closely with the authors to create a meaningful, authentic and thoughtful listening experience.

How did you two work together and with the authors to prepare this audiobook project? What was the process of developing the script that the narrators read? What was the most challenging part of this process?

Kelly Gildea, Senior Executive Producer: I think, after Julie and I read the book, our first question to Vicki, whom we had worked with previously (on Roller Girl) was, should we be looking for Somali actors, or using Americans who can do accents? Vicki felt strongly that it was important to have Somali actors in our cast, and Omar agreed, so an extensive search began. The book itself did not need many tweaks, in terms of adapting the text. In a few cases, we did change the language a bit, to make it listener-friendly, but for the most part, the audio reflects the original text. And though we did have help creating a user-friendly script, in studio, we ended up working directly from the graphic novel. Sometimes the art can really inform a performance, in terms of the visuals you’re seeing for the characters in the scene.

“Sometimes the art can really inform a performance, in terms of the visuals you’re seeing for the characters in the scene.”

Describe the process of casting this audiobook. How was it different than other full-cast projects you’ve worked on? What challenges did you come across, what factors came into play and how did you shape your vision for the final product?

Kelly: Though this was an incredibly challenging project, the fact that we eventually located and hired actors from Somalia, Yemen and Ethiopia, enhanced the program in ways that are too numerous to count. Our cast is rounded out by a few talented African Americans who used a Somali (or Kenyan, or Ghanaian) accents. The main obstacle, during recording, was actually the reading of the English text with a Somali accent. Though the book stunningly portrays life in a Somalian refugee camp, some of the language is adapted for an English-speaking audience. What results is something very unique. Omar’s voice, portrayed by Faysal Ahmed, is so specific and individual and unlike anything else you’ve heard. Omar is sweet and earnest and hopeful, and Faysal elevates all of that.

Julie Wilson, Senior Executive Producer: As co-producers, Kelly and I were able to discuss every character and listen to and talk through auditions we received. We tended to be on the same page about casting, but this gave us an extra ear to rely on. Once we reached a consensus about which actors we believed were best suited for the roles, we presented those ideas to Vicki and Omar. Both Kelly and I really value our authors’ input and, like Kelly said, this audiobook became the unique recording it is today because of how Vicki advocated for a Somali cast. I won’t say it was easy to find our core cast. We utilized every resource we had from reaching out to agents to posting on private ADR (automated dialogue replacement) Facebook groups. But I think all of that extra effort ultimately led to a recording that’s unlike anything we’ve heard before. For instance, if you listen close to the background sounds in certain scenes, you’ll hear our cast’s voices overlaid and their authentic dialects create an incredibly distinctive atmosphere.

You worked together on Roller Girl, also by Victoria Jamieson. How did your experiences working on that project inform your collaboration on this one?

Kelly: With Roller Girl, we received so much support and enthusiasm from Vicki, from her blessing on the choice of the main narrator, to her trust in leaving the remainder of the casting up to us, to her enormous input on the text variances for audio. We knew that we could lean on her again. She offered up some resources she’d used when researching the book, including a few sources in Minneapolis, where there is a large Somali population. One of her sources, who was an early reader of the book, expressed interest in narrating. She ended up sending us an incredible audition & was cast in a lead role! Vicki also connected us with Omar, who was invaluable. Omar listened to many samples that we sent, giving us his feedback, and also left many voicemails with Somali pronunciations. An extra special thing is that we were able to include both authors as narrators on this program, since they wrote Authors’ Notes. So, you hear this beautiful full-cast performance based on Omar’s life story and then you get to hear from Omar himself, followed by Vicki.

Click here to read BookPage’s review of When Stars Are Scattered.

Julie: With Roller Girl, Kelly and I developed a process of sharing information, reviewing the script, and exchanging ideas about casting. I think when you work that closely together you develop a trust in your producing partner. That support helped us through the more trying moments of casting When Stars Are Scattered. For instance, when we had yet to find Faysal. We were both worried that we wouldn’t find “our Omar,” as Kelly often put it. But when we heard his audition, it just clicked. Collaborating again with Vicki was also a treat. At Penguin Random House Audio, we’re lucky to have what we call “legacy authors,” which means that if you’ve produced an author’s audiobooks before, you’ll likely produce all of their future recordings. We felt Vicki’s confidence in us throughout this entire process. I think she knew that we would handle this audiobook with care because of how well Roller Girl turned out.

What did you learn from working on When Stars Are Scattered together?

Kelly: With a title this complex, it’s great to have two heads (and two sets of ears) to put together to make decisions on casting. We would lend support to each other when one of us was focused on a specific task. For instance, when I was in the studio with the actors, Julie was managing some marketing and publicity queries. Also, we must give credit to Ted Scott and Heather Scott, whom we collaborated with again, for their incredible edit and mix. All of the choices you hear in terms of music and effects were carefully selected by Ted and Heather. They once again took multiple performances and weaved them together to create a beautiful soundscape.

Julie: I love collaborating with Kelly because her commitment to production is rivaled only by her dedication to directing them. As producers, we often collaborate with actors, directors, sound editors and quality controllers, but often we don’t get a chance to learn from our fellow producers. I hope that as Kelly and I continue to co-produce, we’re able to further hone our process and work on new projects—like When Stars Are Scattered—that challenge us creatively.

This recording stood out to me for many reasons, but the one that hit me the hardest was the idea of bringing Omar’s life story to an American audience. I hope that this audiobook will expose this generation of kids to a life in a refugee camp that looks so unlike theirs, and at the same time promotes compassion and understanding. Perhaps it’s because I’m an auditory learner, but listening to Omar’s story made it resonate with me on another level. There are tough scenes, in which Faysal’s voice breaks, and viscerally I felt like Omar was right there sharing his very personal story with me. More than anything, I hope those emotionally raw moments resonate with listeners.

Kelly: Yes, Julie makes such a good point here. When I was prepping this book, my 10-year-old son kept popping over and asking if he could read it next. I think he saw the format (graphic novel) and saw it as immediately accessible. It struck me as quite profound that a book about Somalian refugees could be of interest to an American kid. What Vicki and Omar have done is quite remarkable, using the graphic novel format to tell this emotionally complex story and make it accessible to kids. The line “No one chooses to be a refugee” has stayed with me, when I first read it, and especially when I heard it, and I think it’s so important that my son hear that line too and really let it resonate and find meaning. I’m so glad to have worked with Julie on this project, as she shares the same deep passion for great text. We were able to geek out together about how much we loved this book, and later, how much we loved our production.

This interview was conducted and sponsored by Penguin Random House Audio. 

When Stars Are Scattered, by Omar Mohamed and Newbery Honor-winning author and artist Victoria Jamieson, tells the true story of Omar Mohamed’s childhood in a refugee camp in Kenya, caring…
AudioShort Stories

Aunjanue Ellis

Interview by the editors of BookPage

To bring to life the words of a seminal writer of the Harlem Renaissance is no small feat. The 21 short stories in Zora Neale Hurston’s Hitting a Straight Lick With a Crooked Stick reveal a writer early in her career, incorporating dialect and other language that may not easily translate to contemporary listeners’ ears. But Aunjanue Ellis brings more than 25 years of experience acting in TV and film—including The Taking of Pelham 123, The Help, “The Book of Negroes” and “Quantico”—to her first audiobook narration, and her performance of Hitting a Straight Lick smooths any barrier between historical tale and modern audience.

We reached out to Ellis about her experience narrating Hitting a Straight Lick, her own connection to Hurston and her love of books.

Tell me a bit about transforming Hitting a Straight Lick into an audiobook. How did you prepare, and what did you most enjoy about the preparation?
I read the stories and then re-read the stories. I would have to go over several passages over and over before recording. The enjoyment came from the reading. This collection has such electric, surprising writing. I fell in love with ZHurston all over again.

“This collection has such electric, surprising writing.”

Tell us about your personal connection to Hurston prior to narrating the audiobook.
Their Eyes Were Watching God was one of those books that shaped my understanding of what great writing is. So years ago, I tried to write a screenplay about Zora. I had no experience writing a screenplay and gave up on the project after months of trying. It is my hope that it gets done—the movie on her life. I may not write it but the world needs to see it. And actually, I played Zora in a film that Rodney Evans directed called Brother to Brother.

What was the most difficult part of bringing Hurston’s signature dialect style to life?
The difficult part is that it is dialect! I have to say it is the most difficult thing I’ve ever done. The director had to push me to finish toward the end because it was so hard, and I was exhausted. I wasn’t just reading. I was performing all those rich characters that Zora created. I had to find their differences, even if it was just hair’s breath. And the dialect is another language. So I had to approach it like I was speaking another language. There were words that are obsolete or arcane. And the way that it is written—graphically—it requires your eyes to work differently and more specifically. It was the hardest thing I have done as a performer.

“You have the voice of someone who adores you taking you on an adventure that you can only see in the matinee theatre of your mind.”

Was there anything you felt strongly about getting “right” as you narrated the work of such a definitive icon of the Harlem Renaissance?
Yes, that’s why it was so hard, because I wanted the dialect to sound as Zora heard it. Also, sometimes Zora would write the same character and also repeat plots in different iterations in several stories. I wanted to make sure though that the reader would hear them differently every time.

How does the experience of narrating an audiobook differ from other kinds of performance? What’s the hardest part of limiting your acting toolbox to just your voice?
I’m not good in recording studios! I’m usually a very amiable actor until it’s time for me to do ADR—that’s when you have to add or replace dialogue from scenes you’ve shot. I get very impatient, and do-overs bother me, AND it’s claustrophobic. So when I did this, it was ADR maximized. And I think you’ve hit in the question partly as to why it’s troublesome for me: I can only use my voice. There are no other tricks to use, because no one can see me. And also, I am alone. No scene partners. Just me and a taunting microphone. I have SO much respect now for actors who do this as a profession. Doing the book was incredibly and surprisingly difficult, but I had an immeasurable reward. I lived with Zora and the citizens of her great world for days.

Hitting a Straight LickWhat were you surprised to learn about the audiobook process?
I was surprised at how exacting it is. You can’t leave out or add words, which I do all the time when I perform in other mediums. You realize that the words are queen. You must perform them exactly how they are written. To not do that is to deny the listener the book.

As someone who holds a B.A. in African American studies, did you come to Hurston’s short story collection with any kind of expectations about her work? Did these short stories change your ideas of Hurston as a writer?
The first story in the collection, “John Redding Goes to Sea,” was one of my favorites. It is so supple and delicate to the ear. Zora has such a keen eye and ear to the myriad ways her characters express grief, longing and joy. She is utterly modern in that way. I was compelled to read more of her shorter work. It was like discovering a new writer. Everything I assumed and took for granted about her work was called into question.

What do you believe are your greatest strengths as a narrator? What is the most rewarding or coolest thing you get to bring to this experience through your reading?
I just didn’t want to embarrass Zora. So that was my strength: fear! It is an unparalleled motivator to not screw things up. And I had it!

What do audiobooks offer that a book can’t? And considering how much audiobooks are booming, why do you think we’re being drawn to this medium more and more?
Well, I’m a book NERD! I love everything about them. They are a fetish. The feel of them. The smell of them. The buying of them. Bookstores are my temples. So this is a complicated question for me. Telling a story is one of the first acts of love an adult gives to a child. You have the voice of someone who adores you taking you on an adventure that you can only see in the matinee theatre of your mind. My love for stories and reading has never strayed from this idea. I think this is the innate beauty and gravity of audiobooks.

 

ALSO IN BOOKPAGE: Read our review of Hitting a Straight Lick With a Crooked Stick and our audiobook review.

Actor Aunjanue Ellis discusses her experience narrating Zora Neale Hurston’s collection of short stories.
FictionAudioPopular Fiction

Lydia Look

Interview by Cat, Deputy Editor

The drama and relationship foibles of trust-fund billionaires make for tremendous fun in Kevin Kwan’s novel Sex and Vanity, which cavorts from an over-the-top wedding in Capri to the streets of New York City. Lydia Look makes it all come alive in the relentlessly entertaining audiobook.

Look, a Los Angeles-based actor, writer and producer who has over a hundred film, TV, theater and voice credits, and who has previously narrated Kwan’s novels China Rich Girlfriend and Rich People Problems, brilliantly hops from one character to another, switching accents and attitudes in a dazzling performance. Here she discusses the “infinite magic” of Kwan’s fiction and what it’s like to produce audiobooks during the pandemic.

Tell me a bit about transforming Sex and Vanity into an audiobook. How did you prepare, and what did you most enjoy about the preparation?
It paralleled Lucie’s journey to Capri at the top of the book. Fraught with highs and lows, it was truly memorable. The highs were being asked to do the job and the prepping of the book—that was magical. The lows being that it coincided with the onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic. We were in complete lockdown and had to revert to recording from home. I spent a great deal of time trying to get supplies to arrive in time in order for my broadcast-quality home studio to be ready for the job, and it was a challenge putting it all together in quarantine lockdown mode, to say the least.

I start by reading the book, then rereading certain passages that strike a chord personally. Then comes the best part—I start getting personal with the characters, in my waking hours and in my dreaming hours. The latter is where all the magic happens, as I live vicariously through them as I sleep.

Prepping the book is no different than filling an empty canvas with color. The more detailed you get, the richer they appear as people. The most enjoyable part was getting up-front and cozy with the wonderful characters in the book and assigning people in my life as them. I have a relationship with every character that I voice, and I love it.

“There is infinite magic to Kevin Kwan’s writing, and he spreads great joy through it.”

The wealthy, globetrotting cast has so many different accents. Tell me about the process of capturing their voices. Was there a character’s voice that proved especially challenging, or perhaps one you enjoyed most?
It was great fun! I’m lucky in life to have grown up and been surrounded with a diverse crowd of people of all colors and creeds that I constantly draw from. They make my imagination rich, and I’m so grateful for it. I cast people in my life as the characters in the book, but they remain anonymous in perpetuity. Casting is top secret! The essence of each character’s unique voice comes from having an intimate relationship with them, and I did with great relish. Each character’s vocal timbre reveals his/her inner truth, and the accompanying accent is a road map of their life experiences in total. Accents betray class and pedigree, and timbre reveals a person’s inner truth.

Like Cecil and George in the book, many of Kevin’s characters are well-heeled travelers that code switch easily between accents depending on the company they’re keeping, and that gave me license to create each character’s unique sound in each different setting. That kept me joyfully engaged and on my tippy toes!

I don’t play favorites with the characters I get to breathe life into, but I am very tender toward Rosemary, as I see many shades of my own dynamic, irrepressible and life-loving mother in her. It would be wonderful to get to play her on screen if I could.

Sex and VanityThis is the third of Kevin Kwan’s novels that you’ve narrated. What have you learned in the process, about your work and about Kwan’s?
There is a beautiful shorthand that inherently exists between Kevin and I. It’s blossomed and deepened further over the books, and I really cherish it. I’ve also learned that I can never, ever be as fully prepared as I like and to just show up. In narrating Kevin’s books, you have to be fully present, as his words flow fast and his complex and chameleonic characters appear in a blink of an eye, often unpredictably. There is infinite magic to Kevin Kwan’s writing, and he spreads great joy through it. Be warned, he’s highly addictive!

Sex and Vanity is a reimagining of A Room With a View. Did the film adaptation of the E.M. Forster novel influence your performance in any way?
Oh, very much so! Kevin was majorly influenced by the Merchant Ivory film and requested that I revisit the film prior to recording. I was glad to be able to draw from the film’s witty spirit and astute observations of class and pedigree from a brilliant British cast. Watching it again gave me the permission I needed to have fun with the vocal storytelling. Nothing is too much if it’s grounded in truth, and the film displays that in full finery.

Kwan’s footnotes are especially fun, as they offer commentary from a seemingly omniscient narrator. Who is this voice, to you?
They are my favorite, too! I have had the pleasure of voicing them in three books now and always look forward to them. Those wickedly razor-sharp observations crack me up yet deliver a sobering dose of reality check at the same time. Brilliant, really. I never kiss and tell in casting, but I’ll reveal this one due to it’s obviousness. The spirit and essence of the omniscient narrator is Kevin Kwan, of course! But it’s Kevin’s female doppelgänger, Kevina Kwan (pronounced Keh-vee-nah). It was impossible to imagine anyone else in this part.

Kwan’s novels enjoy poking gentle fun at the incredibly wealthy, without ever being unkind. Similarly, your narration finds humor in the events without ever being mean. How do you balance this?
The more incredibly wealthy they are, the more human their foibles are to me. Their everyday cares and concerns are no different than ours. All they have are incredible means in terms of wealth and power, which they use to fix their everyday problems and that don’t always work. Money can’t buy you everything, not for the things that truly matter in life. So I try to find humor in their pathos and brevity in their farce. Besides, it’s impossible to be mean with Kevin’s writing. He spreads joy. It’s pure love.

ALSO IN BOOKPAGE: Read our review of the Sex and Vanity audiobook.

What do you believe are your greatest strengths as a narrator of audiobooks? What is the most rewarding or coolest thing you get to bring to this experience through your reading?
Ignorance. Initially, it was brilliant that I had no hindsight of what was really in store for me, so I had zero fear going in. Also, I have no shame. The microphone gives me permission. I am utterly shameless in front of it. I am blessed with a very good ear and, to quote the Irish nuns that nurtured me in my childhood, “a gift of the gab.” The most rewarding is hearing the character’s truth, when it works, as I breathe life into them. It’s a complete high for me! Yes, I can have fun all by myself. Ahem . . .

What’s one thing people might not expect about your role as narrator?
It’s hard work! I have so much respect for the craft. When it works, it’s pure elation. When it doesn’t, it is utter devastation. You’re all alone, with a stone-cold mic and only the sound of silence as your scene partner. Narrators are storytellers. I breathe life into the writer’s words and characters and hope to bring you on a journey with me. One hopefully filled with joy and pathos. I pray for a transformative one for the listener. Also, it takes a village to make an audiobook! Big love to my intrepid director Christina Rooney, who guided me expertly, and the wonderful team at Penguin Random House Audio.

The drama and relationship foibles of trust-fund billionaires make for tremendous fun in Kevin Kwan’s novel Sex and Vanity, which cavorts from an over-the-top wedding in Capri to the streets of New York City. Narrator Lydia Look makes it all come alive in the relentlessly entertaining audiobook.
NonfictionAudioMemoir

Maria Hinojosa

Interview by Cat, Deputy Editor

Maria Hinojosa’s masterful book on American immigration and her own family story is a must-read in its own right, but the Mexican American author is also the anchor and executive producer of NPR’s program "Latino USA," and she brings that knowledge and experience to her performance of the Once I Was You: A Memoir of Love and Hate in a Torn America audiobook. It’s moving, funny, heartbreaking, informative and utterly captivating, making it one of the best audiobooks of the year. Here Hinojosa discusses her role as narrator, which allowed her to fall back in love with her own book.

As you were writing the book, were you imagining the way it would be delivered on audio?
I was absolutely not thinking about the audiobook when I was writing! It would’ve been too hard for me to even begin to think that way. The upside for me, however, is that I am always reading things out loud while I’m writing, because that’s what I do for work. As a radio journalist, at some point, everything I’ve written I have said out loud. If it doesn’t roll off my tongue, that’s when I might change something, especially if it doesn’t sound right. But I never thought about the audiobook when I was writing my book.

“A writer is always so conflicted about their work, so it was liberating to be able to be in this space of my words, without being judgmental or changing anything.”

Was there any question that you would narrate the audiobook? If so, what was that process like?
For me, it was an absolute given to narrate the audiobook, but I have to be honest with you: It was one of the things that I felt the most overwhelmed by! I’ve never had to read something as massive as an entire book, and the thought of doing that was actually quite terrifying and overwhelming.

Tell us about transforming your book into an audiobook. How did you prepare?
I prepared like I was going to run a marathon. Even though I felt very overwhelmed by the number of hours it would take for me to record, I had to convince myself that I was going to make it! The pandemic forced me to transform one of the bedrooms in my home into a studio, but in order to work I have to ask everybody in the entire household to be quiet when we record. There was just no way that I could have asked the entire household to be quiet for five hours at a time, much less make the street noise disappear.

In a sense, recording the audiobook was my first break from this psychological barrier of “working from home,” as it marked my return to the office studio. I prepared myself with a lot of tea and my dog, who sat on my lap for about half of the recordings when he wasn’t noisy.

And then there were other parts, like preparing for the more emotional parts of the book. There’s really no way to prepare for that. In fact, my emotions caught me off guard a few times, I just couldn’t help it.

Did narrating your memoir change your relationship to it in any way?
Yes! I fell in love with my book.

A writer is always so conflicted about their work, so it was liberating to be able to be in this space of my words, without being judgmental or changing anything. I vividly remembered the ideas that I had, where I was when I had them, how I imagined this moment of holding this book, I was emotionally connected to it. I reflected on the story of my arrival, and then my time as a young woman. I cried during the scene of my rape, and I found myself rooting for my character as I read on! I laugh about it now because I am the character, she is me! The process of narrating completely transformed my relationship to the memoir, even after I never imagined that it would.

ALSO IN BOOKPAGE: Read our starred review of the Once I Was You audiobook, plus more great audio recommendations.

Did you picture a specific audience to whom you were performing, and did the relationship to your perceived audience change through this performance?
Imagine this story as if you were telling it to your mother.

I always write with this in mind. Keep in mind this doesn’t necessarily work when writing a memoir, but it helps to focus on telling the story to one person. I didn’t have an image of a reader, per se, but I knew that I had to use my voice to connect to them. When you connect to somebody’s writing, it is powerful because it is such an intimate experience, but imagine an added element—the element of your voice. You can use your own voice to exude sensuality, anger, love, raw emotions. I go into the studio a lot, so doing this wasn’t particularly hard for me. I just close my eyes and go into a space.

We can demand that silenced voices need to be heard, that untold history needs to be brought to light, but to hear your voice narrate Once I Was You drives it home, from the strength you imbue into your mother’s voice to the sly tone with which you skewer hypocrisy and racism. Did you have any goals for your narration?
As you may know, I wanted to be an actor, so I have learned to understand the power of my voice figuratively and literally. I have to be honest and say there were moments when I wanted to just keep reading and get through it. But then there were other moments where I wanted to be a good actor, and it turns out I was actually just being my most authentic self! I really wanted to entertain you and draw you in with my voice, use it in the way that radio journalists know we can and share this feeling with the reader.

Once I Was YouWas there a section of your memoir that proved most difficult to narrate, and how did you get through it?
The hardest part of my narration was when I read about my assault. I cried. It took me a while to get through it, maybe because of the way I wrote it. It was very graphic and one of the parts of the book that I wrote while crying. It felt like the scab was off, and I was diffing deeper into my wounds when I talked about this moment and others.

It was hard, but I also felt like I needed to go through that pain as part of my therapy. I needed it to heal. It was hard to relive the moment of almost being taken from my mom, and writing about my dad (may he rest in peace) while feeling him coming toward me. That was hard.

What do you believe is the most rewarding or coolest thing you get to bring to the reading of your book?
I get to bring my drama! I really wanted to bring my entire personality with the book, let loose and be funny, silly, capturing the laughter or cynicism. When writing, you try to take people into those spaces, but when you get to record your audiobook, it’s all about getting people there faster! I loved it!

Are you a frequent audio listener? What role do audiobooks play in your life?
To tell you the truth, I don’t do audiobooks, and I don’t know why! For me, reading a book is in the pleasure of the reading because it’s like a sixth sense that I’m using. I’ve almost felt like I need somebody to initiate me into audiobooks with the best audiobook there is out there to listen to because I am all about having the book in my hand, like the actual book. Even digital books sometimes don’t do it for me. There’s something that’s a little bit less satisfying about them. But I am prepared to try an audiobook because I’m prepared to give my fans an opportunity to tell me which audiobook is the best I can start with!

 

Author photo by Kevin Abosch

Author Maria Hinojosa’s performance of the Once I Was You audiobook is moving, funny, informative, heartbreaking and utterly captivating. Here she discusses her role as narrator, which allowed her to fall back in love with her own book.

NonfictionAudioMemoir

Robin Miles

Interview by Cat, Deputy Editor

Actor, activist and visionary Cicely Tyson’s memoir, Just as I Am, is as graceful as it is funny, as measured as it is charming. The audiobook features a number of treasures, including a foreword read by Viola Davis and an introduction from Tyson herself, but narrator Robin Miles carries the majority of Tyson’s life story, and she does so beautifully. Here Miles discusses the humbling and thrilling process of narrating this remarkable book.

Tell me a bit about transforming Just as I Am into an audiobook. How did you prepare, and what did you most enjoy about the preparation?
I Googled to find every interview [of Tyson] I could, and then watched them repeatedly. Not to copy her voice, but to hear and feel how she communicates, her energy and pace, her intellect and humor. And I wanted to feel her energy as a young actress, then again as a mature actress. I just loved how self-possessed she was in all of them.

Tell us about your personal connection to Tyson prior to narrating the audiobook, and did you work with her at all during the audiobook’s production?
Cicely Tyson was very special to me; she was a big reason why I wanted to be an actor and believed that it was possible for me, the Black girl with the buck teeth. I did get to speak with her during the process, and it was thrilling. Also humbling, because she asked me to take my time more in the reading. (Ironically, I had stepped up my pace, fearing that my original tempo might be too slow. She assured me that my instincts were right, and reminded me to always trust them. Sigh . . .)

Was there anything you felt strongly about getting “right” as you narrated her words?
Absolutely. I wanted the moments when she expressed a strong reaction or deep impression to be organic, natural and true. No pretense, no overplaying.

As you told Tyson’s story, what were you most surprised to learn about her? Was there any section that was particularly challenging to narrate?
I was surprised to learn that she came from the same neighborhoods of NYC that my Caribbean grandparents, aunties and uncles lived in. I keep thinking that one of my great aunts must have known her as a little girl. It was a six-degrees experience knowing that, and that my acting teacher at Yale Drama, Earl Gister, was a close colleague of her teacher, Lloyd Richards.

Do you have a favorite Cicely Tyson performance or memory?
Oh yes . . . Sounder. That film left an indelible impression on me. I think it was the quiet intensity, the way she portrayed perseverance, love and grounding with a soft femininity. It just shattered the stereotyped images of Black women we had been fed in entertainment up to that point.

How does the experience of narrating an audiobook differ from other kinds of performances?
With audiobooks, I conjure and project images in front of me the whole time (the place, the people, etc.), so I am reacting to something outside of myself that I must invest in, but that isn’t tangibly there. With theater, film, TV, there are so many levels of real images to use as a source; you endow them with meaning and let them do their work. The movie of the audiobook narrative happens solely in my head.

“It emotionally hurts to let that pain into my body, but it is necessary to make complex human dynamics recognizable.”

What’s the hardest part of limiting your acting toolbox to just your voice?
Good question. One thing is definitely the urge to move or gesture. I cannot tell you how often I’ve whacked a mic. The other is that you cannot hide; you have to release the thing you’re feeling and pursue the things you want or else you leave your listener squinting (i.e., left in a state of confusion about what’s happening between characters).

What do you believe are your greatest strengths as a narrator?
I would say a deep understanding of language, strong acting chops and a strong ear for music and rhythm, which helps with accents and emphasis. I was blessed to have exceptional speakers modeling the use of language in my family. I had a leg up in understanding complex sentences from my grandfather, who was a Shakespeare and Victorian poetry professor. It’s like the family legacy, so I cannot take credit for it. I also grew up in a neighborhood of immigrants from everywhere, and I absorbed their accents. Then, drama school added solid acting training to my arsenal. It turned out to be a perfect storm for audiobook narration.

What is the most rewarding or coolest thing you get to bring to this experience through your reading?
The most rewarding thing I’d have to say is offering up my emotional intelligence as a community service. When I express what characters feel and want from each other, what is happening beneath the words, I like to think I add to the emotional intelligence of the community. At least, I tell myself that when I freely allow a character’s pain to play through my body and voice. It emotionally hurts to let that pain into my body, but it is necessary to make complex human dynamics recognizable.

What’s one thing people might not expect about your role as narrator?
I think people believe that narrators read super fluidly and make very few mistakes. And that can be true for me with colloquially worded nonfiction books and some very fluidly written fiction. But we narrators misread or stop to redo a line every few sentences, particularly with fiction. Especially in the beginning of the book, before I have absorbed the feel of the author’s style and the individual characters. My students who accompany me to a session are always so surprised.

ALSO IN BOOKPAGE: Read our starred review of the Just as I Am audiobook.

Narrator Robin Miles discusses the humbling and thrilling process of narrating Cicely Tyson's remarkable memoir, Just as I Am.
NonfictionFictionAudio

Audio: November 2020

Feature by Anna Zeitlin

Beloved writers and big-name narrators make this month’s audio picks extra special.

★ Intimations

Written just a few months into the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown, Zadie Smith’s Intimations captures our current moment with astute observations, imagination and empathy. Through personal essays that focus on small moments to reveal profound truths, Smith notes how the virus is changing the behavior of her New York City neighbors. She also explores the ways that racism rages unchecked, as if it were another type of virus. It’s astounding that Smith, an award-winning writer of both fiction and nonfiction, has already gained such perspective on the present, an accomplishment that typically requires more time and distance. She is a gifted storyteller, and her narration makes it feel all the more personal. This is a worthy listen, even if just for the various New York characters who interrupt Smith’s proper British narration.

★ When No One Is Watching

The first suspense novel from critically acclaimed romance author Alyssa Cole, When No One Is Watching is a social thriller about gentrification gone extra bad. Sydney Green is living in her mother’s Brooklyn home when she notices the neighborhood beginning to change. She reluctantly teams up with Theo, one of her many new white neighbors, to research the history of the neighborhood for a tour she’s planning to give. When the neighborhood’s Black residents start disappearing in suspicious ways, Sydney knows there must be more going on. This raucously funny, shocking thriller, narrated by Susan Dalian and Jay Aaseng, will ring eerily true to anyone who’s lived in a gentrifying neighborhood. Dalian’s narration gives us a sense of Sydney’s no-nonsense attitude and sharp wit, while Aaseng gives Theo a chill, cool-dude vibe.

The Switch

In Beth O’Leary’s The Switch, career-focused Leena is forced into a two-month sabbatical from work, so she decides to home-swap with her newly divorced grandmother, Eileen. Leena learns how to slow down and connect with her new Yorkshire neighbors, while Eileen has a thing or two to teach everyone in the big city of London— and they both have fun exploring the men in their new surroundings. Narrators Alison Steadman and Daisy Edgar-Jones alternate chapters between the two perspectives. Steadman may be familiar to listeners as Mrs. Bennet from the BBC’s 1995 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, and she brings the same level of sass to her role as Eileen. Edgar-Jones recently won over viewers in her starring role in “Normal People,” and she does a great job adding dimension to Leena.

Beloved writers and big-name narrators make this month’s audio picks extra special.</p

NonfictionAudioHistory

Ibram X. Kendi, Keisha N. Blain, Sarah Jaffe, Amber Beard & Molly Lo Re

Interview by the editors of BookPage

In the monumental audiobook of Four Hundred Souls (14 hours), edited by Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain, essays and poems chronicling 400 years of Black American history are read by a vast chorus of 87 narrators. Editors Kendi and Blain discuss the transformation of their groundbreaking book into audio, and they’re joined by Penguin Random House Audio producers Sarah Jaffe, Amber Beard and Molly Lo Re, who offer a peek into the production process.

How early in your conception of the book did you begin to plan for the specific challenges and opportunities of the audiobook?
Ibram X. Kendi: The plans for the audiobook came much later in the process, after the book was finished. We really wanted to actualize what I wrote about in the introduction, that this community of writers was like a choir.

Keisha N. Blain: Like Ibram, I thought the diversity of thought in the book would be best represented with a large cast of narrators. Using a full cast really captures the different voices at play in collecting the experiences of 90 contributors.

“There are few powers more important than the power to tell your own story.”

What’s one benefit of listening to the audiobook of Four Hundred Souls that you don’t get from reading the print book?
Blain: The contributors we gathered for Four Hundred Souls are all outstanding writers. And while that talent is apparent on the page, hearing those same passages read out loud and performed is a revelatory and moving experience.

Considering how much language has been used to control Black lives for hundreds of years, how does a choral audiobook like this one reclaim Black power?
Kendi: There are few powers more important than the power to tell your own story. Black people have been fighting for this power for centuries, and we claimed this power for Four Hundred Souls.

Blain: The attempts to silence Black people—and especially Black women—are a defining feature of American history. The audiobook of Four Hundred Souls aims a direct challenge to those efforts by giving voice to a communal history written and narrated by Black people.

ALSO IN BOOKPAGE: Read our starred review of the Four Hundred Souls audiobook.

Some of the book’s essays are read by their authors, others by actors. Tell us about the process of matching essays with narrators.
Sarah Jaffe, Executive Producer: We wanted to assemble a cast that felt true to the project of the book, and to do that we knew we needed a plurality and a diversity of narrators. A combination of authors and actors, with a few celebrities among them, felt like the best way to do that, blending familiar and famous voices with fresher ones, and even some who had never done this before, juxtaposing different vocal textures.

Four Hundred SoulsWe identified a few authors who would be particularly good fits to read their own work: those renowned for their work in the audio world; poets who are skilled performers; an array of legendary activists and public speakers; and professors who perform at the front of a classroom every day and know how to make their words sink in and sing in a different way.

When it came time to pair actors with the rest of the pieces, we wanted to be really thoughtful about how we did that. I’m a firm believer that while actors can do anything, everyone (actor or not) does their best work when they’re working on something they’re passionate about. And since this book is largely about how Black America is not a monolith, we wanted to give our cast the chance to choose the pieces that resonated most with them. So instead of just assigning pieces, we gave actors the option to choose what they wanted to read.

Amber Beard, Associate Producer: If they felt a personal connection to a particular essay or story, then that would only make the reading that more poignant.

Molly Lo Re, Associate Producer: It meant a lot of puzzle-piecing behind the scenes, but I think you can tell with each narrator that they have a strong connection to the subject matter. That extra investment is key in making this audiobook really special.

“I’m a firm believer that while actors can do anything, everyone (actor or not) does their best work when they’re working on something they’re passionate about.”

Was there any essay or piece that was particularly difficult to pair with a narrator, or perhaps one that stuck out in your mind as especially important to get right?
Jaffe: They were all important to get right! Honestly, one of the best parts about handling casting the way we did is that it allowed us to learn a lot more about the actors we worked with. We paired actors with pieces that they chose because they were about their hometowns or mirrored their personal histories, or were by or about people they had a connection to, or as at least one actor told me, spoke to their souls. I’m so grateful. The more I know about each actor and what interests them, the more it helps me to be a better producer and pair them with future projects that I know they’ll be excited about.

Beard: I’m a longtime admirer of Phylicia Rashad’s work, so I can’t help but get excited to hear her eloquent voice. In general, we wanted to try to stay true to each piece’s point of view, so we did try to pair each with a narrator who reflected an aspect of what was being written about. But as this is a shared community experience, we didn’t make that a hard and fast rule.

Lo Re: What I personally love about the finished product is that the performances are simultaneously intertwined yet separate strands. The audiobook is undoubtedly a collective endeavor, with voices coming together to share 400 years of the African American experience. But at the same time, each essay is given voice by a different reader with their own perspective, performance style, vocal tone. For me, it was less about getting individual pairings “right” and more about making sure we got the overall experience of listening to the book right. This meant casting as wide a net as possible when looking for readers.

ALSO IN BOOKPAGE: Discover more of the year’s best full-cast audiobooks.

Are there any other audiobooks with a big cast that you drew inspiration from for this production?
Jaffe: George Saunders’ Lincoln in the Bardo has a famously large cast and is one of the most ambitious audiobooks I’ve ever listened to, and that’s probably the book that came up most often in thinking about how to approach Four Hundred Souls. I don’t think it’s an accident that both books are about a reckoning with American history, the unreliability of conventional historical narratives and the ways in which both remarkable and everyday people make and are enmeshed in history. Both books try to make the human details that shape a nation’s character visible, and both make it clear that in order to truly reckon with our past and present, we need to hear a plurality of voices telling their stories. Dr. Kendi and Dr. Blain’s idea for a community history is genius and groundbreaking in this way.

Beard: This was my first time casting an audiobook with a cast this large. I think it was a great opportunity to work with narrators that we’ve always wanted to and also discover new ones that we’ll definitely want to continue to work with in the future.

Lo Re: Honestly, because of the added complications of the coronavirus, this one felt like a completely different beast. We recorded in December 2020 and January 2021, under the looming shadow of rising COVID-19 cases. The vast majority of people read from home studio setups, and we approached every aspect of the production with the question, How can we do this in the safest way possible?

Books for Black History Month 2021

ALSO IN BOOKPAGE: Six books to deepen your knowledge of our country’s past, including Four Hundred Souls.

Is there any particular performance from this collection that stuck with you after you heard it?
Kendi: I loved Danai Gurira’s performance [of Martha S. Jones’ “1774–1779 The American Revolution”], and Professor Blain’s closing oration was powerful.

Blain: I loved Phylicia Rashad’s performance of Bernice McFadden’s essay on Zora Neale Hurston.

Jaffe: All of the poetry gave me goosebumps, especially J.D. Jackson reading Jericho Brown’s “Upon Arrival,” and Patricia Smith reading her poem “Coiled and Unleashed.” But the choral transitions between pieces might be my favorite part of this production. We wanted to underscore the community nature of this book, and so throughout the program, our editor mixed a variety of voices announcing the title of each piece and each five-year range. As you’re listening, it really does feel like a cohesive history told to you by a community, with each member taking their turn to speak.

Beard: I am a longtime poetry nerd, so I’m always thrilled to get a chance to bring poems to life via audio. I was particularly drawn to Mahogany L. Browne’s poem, “Morse: John Wayne Niles . __. . Ermias Joseph Asghedom.” The opening lines, “Gunshot wound / is a violent way to say gone missing,” are so potent and resonant with what happens in our world today. Also the use of Morse code added a unique element.

Lo Re: One thing that we did with this audiobook that I’d like to bring to other audiobooks is having everyone say their own name for the credits. I absolutely loved the way it gave contributors a tad more ownership over the final product, like a curtain-call moment.

“It becomes intimate and multifaceted and overtly personal in a way history often isn’t. That’s powerful. This is a powerful book.”

Is there anything that surprised you once you heard the final audiobook?
Kendi: I framed the 90 contributors to Four Hundred Souls as a choir in the introduction, but hearing the choir through the audiobook surprised me, pleasantly.

Blain: Hearing the different performances amazed me. I knew Four Hundred Souls was an ambitious project, and co-editing it further revealed how unique it was to have so many contributors across so many fields and genres. However, the audiobook revealed how truly impressive the book is—and I am proud to be a part of this wonderful project.

Jaffe: We always say this about audiobooks, but it really does bring the text to life—maybe more so in this book than almost any other I’ve listened to. You hear these layers of history and experience speaking to you in chorus, filtered through this powerful writing and these beautiful performances, and occasionally as you’re immersed in what you’re listening to, you recognize a voice, which gives you that feeling of, “Hey, I know this person!” Maybe they’re telling you something you never knew before or never thought about that way before, or just something you really needed to hear someone say out loud and name as true. It becomes intimate and multifaceted and overtly personal in a way history often isn’t. That’s powerful. This is a powerful book.

Beard: So many of these stories are unknown. To put real, human voices to them helps give them life and power. These are stories that need to be heard and shared. I thought it was such a beautiful thing to have this literal chorus of voices speaking the truth of the African American experience.

Lo Re: The thing that probably most surprised me was how effective the layered voices sounded throughout. While we had planned on incorporating collective lines in the audiobook from very early in the process, I didn’t really know what the final version would sound like. I imagined the lines would be read as one voice—but the way that the final version pulls out individual voices and the voices appear to be coming from different physical spaces is so much richer and completely bowled me over. The brilliant editors at Tim Bader Audio deserve so much credit for how delicately they mixed together these sections.

 

Kendi photo by Stephen Voss. Blain photo by Chioke l’Anson.

Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain are joined by Penguin Random House Audio producers to discuss the monumental cast recording of Four Hundred Souls.

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