Ep. 6 | Dialects in Appalachian Audiobooks
Kendra Winchester discusses the challenges audiobook narrators face when performing Appalachian dialects. She’s joined by special guests Monica Brashears, Jeanette Illidge, Idra Novey, and Christina Delaine.
Things Mentioned
“Better Than Nothing? Exploring the Limitations of AI-audiobooks from a Disabled Person’s Perspective” (Book Riot)
“10 Audiobook Narrators You Need to Follow on TikTok” (Book Riot)
“We Need to Stop Asking the Question, Do Audiobooks Count as Reading?” (Book Riot)
“Novelist Idra Novey on the Places That Made Her” (Belt Magazine)
Books Mentioned
Guest Info
(c) Beowulf Sheehan
(c) Jeanette Illidge
Jeanette Illidge is an award-winning audiobook narrator, and her youthful voice can be heard across various genres, most notably in YA Fiction, Romance, and Fantasy. As a trained theater actor, Jeanette began her professional career in Atlanta on the stage of the Tony award-winning Alliance Theater and has performed primarily in musical theatre on regional stages across the city. Jeanette began working as a narrator in 2018 at Lantern Audio and since that time she has recorded a little over 80 books, both at Lantern and most recently from her brand-new broadcast quality home studio. Last year she was honored to receive her first Audie Nomination in the young adult category for her performance in Lynette Noni’s The Prison Healer. With a passion for storytelling and for books, Jeanette brings authenticity and truth to everything she narrates
and through her narration she strives to honor the words and the work of each and every author.
(c) Jessie Ditmar
Idra Novey grew up in the Southern Allegheny Highlands of Appalachia, where parts of her family have lived for over a century. Her novel Take What You Need is a New York Times Editor's Choice, a Talk Pittsburgh Book Club Pick, and Best Fiction Pick for Spring with the Wall Street Journal. Her first novel, Ways to Disappear, was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times First Fiction Prize. She's written several books of poetry and translation, and has written for the Atlantic, The New York Times, and the LA Times.
(c) Christina Delaine
Christina Delaine is an accomplished stage and voice actor who has trod the boards of theaters from coast to coast. A grateful recipient of 10 AudioFile Earphones Awards, a SOVAS Voice Arts Award (8-time nominee), and an Audie Award nomination for audiobook narration, Delaine’s voice can also be heard in scores of commercials and video games. A faculty member of NYU's Tisch School of the Arts' Stonestreet Conservatory, she has a BA from Dartmouth College and an MFA from Brown University/Trinity Rep.
