>> Kathryn Marguy:
Welcome, everyone.
My name is Kathryn Marguy, and
I have the incredible pleasure
of working with the National
Library Service for the Blind
and Print Disabled at the
Library of Congress, or NLS for
short. NLS distributes
free audio books and braille to
those who cannot read a
traditional print book because
of a disability.
The NLS began in 1931 as a
service providing tactile
materials for those who are
blind.
In our 90 plus year history, we
have gone on to expand our
service to children, those with
low vision, and people with
physical and reading
disabilities.
Since then, our collections
have grown to include hundreds
of thousands of titles in tons
of formats, and not just books,
but magazines and accessible
music materials as well.
But today, we want to talk about
NLS's special relationships
with the audio book and recorded
sound because
the fact is, it is impossible to
separate the story of audiobooks
from the National Library
Service.
In 1934, Congress appropriated
funds for NLS to distribute the
first ever audio book materials
using a new technology:
the long play or LP record.
These talking books, as they
were aptly known, were created
specifically to help people who
could not see.
In fact, the phrase solely for
the use of the blind was printed
on every early talking book
record produced. LP records
were eventually adopted widely
by the recording industry, and
over time, NLS went on to
distribute audio materials via
cassette tapes, digital
cartridges, and now a mobile app
available on any smart device,
but we still call them
talking books.
And to this day, our DC office
has a state of the art recording
studio to continue recording
excellent talking books to our
ever growing collection.
So if you've ever listened to
an audio book or an LP record,
you can thank the dedicated
people who, in the early 20th
century, committed themselves to
the idea that everyone deserves
access to a good book,
regardless of ability.
With that in mind, I'm
delighted to introduce our
esteemed panel of narrators to
discuss the art of the talking
book. Michael Kramer joined the
staff at the Library of Congress
talking book program in 1993.
His narration has received over
a dozen AudioFile Magazine
Earphones awards, a Publishers
Weekly Listen Up aAard, a vocal
artist nomination, two Stabby
awards and two Audio Publishers
Association Audie awards in
2015, and most recently in 2022,
narrating Brandon Sanderson's
fantasy novel, Rhythm of War
along with his wife, Kate
Reading.
Kimberly Schraf is a veteran of
37 years of book, narration and
acting on the professional
stage.
She has performed at numerous
theatres in Washington, DC and
Baltimore and has narrated over
600 audiobooks.
Among her favorites are the
Shipping News, The Collected
Poems of Emily Dickinson and
Savage Beauty.
In 2002, Schraf received the
Alexander Scourby Award for
fiction, honoring her narration
of Bee Season by Myla Goldberg.
Dawn Ursula came to book
narration and voiceover work
from a career in theater and on
camera.
She spent over 20 years
portraying a number of
incredible characters and has
earned two Helen Hayes awards
and numerous nominations.
Dawn has been with the National
Library Service since 2013, and
in 2020 she built a
professional home recording
studio and has been focused on
full time audiobook narration
and voiceover work book
production.
We're thrilled to have you
today, and I'd love to start our
discussion by starting at the
very beginning,
a very fine place to start.
When you are working on a new
project, how do you prepare--
both preparing the text of the
book, but also your voice, your
instrument for this kind of long
form narration?
Michael, want to kick us off?
>> Michael Kramer:
Oh, wow. When I first read a
book to prepare, what I'm trying
to do is remember and
capture that experience.
So I try to not interrupt
myself as much as possible.
I'll take a highlighter to
highlight words or phrases that
I will eventually have to look
up.
But what I'm really trying to
do is remember and/or discover
the dramatic structure of the
piece that I'm working on, and
that can be fiction or
nonfiction.
It's always a story,
so what's the structure of this
story, and how does it build,
and where do you want to turn
the page faster?
Where do you want to take your
time, and
let it resonate with you?
Physically,
I think the most important
preparation is getting a great
night's sleep because it's not
your voice that will go first
when you're narrating, it's
your concentration.
And sleep is probably the
biggest thing, both to fix your
voice, but also to keep you
focused.
>> Kimberly Schraf:
Hmm. Mmm.
Yeah, I concur with
everything that Michael said.
It really varies with the
project.
So there's always some sort of
research component, and it might
be a heavy lift that involves
looking up names of places and
people, possibly contacting an
editor and speaking with an
author or just making sure
there's no surprises.
In the early days of my book
narration career, I read the
whole book page by page and
made notes, and I think that's
the ideal,
but sometimes when things have
to be done on a certain
timetable, you streamline that.
And I've gotten a little better
at streamlining.
So I want to first go to an
index and see what's
coming and then skim through--
even if it's a book of fiction,
get a sense of my cast of
characters and make some notes
about where those live in my
voice, in my body.
And that's the first
layer of of preparation.
>> Kathryn Marguy:
How about you, Don?
>> Dawn Ursula:
I would say, yes.
We're all like [Gasps] my voice!
I would yes to--
>> Kimberly Schraf:
Say yes to the narrator?
[Laughter]
>> Dawn Ursula:
And add on to it a couple
just like, technical things.
I do keep for every book a
pronunciation guide that I use,
but also for reviewers who
are going to be correcting my
work: the word, how it really
should be pronounced versus what
you might actually hear me do,
and where I got the research
from. As well as-- I do like to
keep notes as I'm going along
and prepping a book
specifically to help me later
on. If, like, a character shows
up at page 4 and disappears
and comes back at page 104, I
don't remember what they sound
like. But I'll write down the
first page that they showed up,
the time code, some description
about them, so I can reference
them more quickly later on,
go, "Oh, that's Molly!"
"Welcome Molly. Let's-- okay--"
[Laughter]
>> Kathryn Marguy:
Dawn, I want to come right back
to you and start this
question really for the panel.
What was your most unique voice
work you've ever done?
>> Dawn Ursula:
[Laughing] People are laughing.
graphic novel, fantasy,
you know, [high pitch] 
I had the most terrible time
finding a little squirrel voice,
or [inaudible], things like
that nature, which I love a
lot. And every once in a while,
it's like, I know you wanted
that. [Laughter]
>> Kimberly Schraf:
I had requested the squirrel.
Yeah. That was the squirrel.
[Laughter]
>> Michael Kramer:
Yeah. Thank you.
Thank you, Dawn. [Laughter]
We were waiting for that one.
>> Kimberly Schraf:
In the fantasy realm--
I'll just throw a quick story
on.
I was assigned a sci fi fantasy
book. That is not my go to
genre. I'm not a big fan.
I respect the genre.
But I was asked to do the book,
and I thought, let's stretch
ourselves, let's, you know,
let's learn to do everything.
And I took it on a very
impressive book by C.J.
Cherry. And come to find out,
there was an alien language with
a glossary, pronunciations that
involved vocal clicks and stops.
And I had to learn it, and I had
to speak it. And all that was
great learning, a great
experience, until I found out it
was the first of about a 12
book series.
And so I lived with these
aliens, and I spoke their tongue
for a very long time.
>> Michael Kramer:
Yeah, I think the most unique is
probably doing the Wheel of Time
series written by Robert
Jordan.
It's about a 15 book series.
I think it's close to 5--
between 500 and 600 hours.
I was a co-narrator on that,
but thousands--
I had an inch thick, three ring
binder of characters that you
had to keep track of.
And this partly goes in the
preparation world because that
genre challenges you to do
voices of dragons and creatures
that don't exist. And how do
you, you know, how do you make
a tree talk?
How do you make a squirrel talk?
I didn't know Dawn at that
time, [Laughing] but one of the
things I ran into-- one of the
major characters, as it turned
out-- and you're introduced to
him, and he had one line, and I
thought, Oh, I know what I'm to
do with that and then turned the
page, and he had a three page
monologue.
And so one of the preparation
things, but also one of the
things when you're doing a book
is figuring out what choice can
I make? And it had to be an
extreme choice, but also that I
can sustain for 3 pages and
3 pages is about 6 minutes,
which can be-- you can spend
weeks in those 6 minutes, both
as a listener, but also as a
narrator.
So what's the choice that's
going to push-- keep the
momentum of the story moving
forward,
still give a hint as to the
otherworldliness of this
character and be
interesting?
And yet you have to be
able to sustain it physically
yourself. So that's probably
the most interesting choice.
It's also one of my favorite
choices because you kind of just
think on that.
I'm sure that Dawn went to
sleep and just-- [imitating]
"How am I going to do the 
squirrel? How am I going to do
the squirrel?""
And then voila, it happened.
>> Kathryn Marguy:
So you raise an interesting
question about how genre changes
your approach book by book.
So I'm curious to have the
panel expound on this a little
bit. How does your approach
change by genre?
Kimberly?
>> Kimberly Schraf:
You know, I think my
physicality
changes with the genre, or at
least that's an aspect of the
change. Certainly my pacing,
perhaps my inflection changes
with a genre.
But there is something about
doing a hardboiled crime
procedural that doesn't want
erect posture, you know, that
invites a little bit of an
angle or a slump.
And that helps me.
It's a cock of the head or-- 
A lift of the chin can embody
a character or a genre for me.
And that's been really
interesting to explore.
What is the stance of the
genre?
You can't do too much because
you have to maintain a
consistent distance from your
mouth to the
microphone.
And you can't be weaving all
over the place,
but the smallest thrust of a
shoulder or a caving in of
your chest can bring
something into the read.
So that's my sort of weird
answer to how genres differ.
>> Michael Kramer:
Yeah, I would. To me, the
parallel I use is: as a
musician looks at a score,
that's how a narrator looks at
print. It's very much the same
in that you're taking a
visual element and giving it
sound.
And in the same way that a
musician might look at a score
to interpret, it's like, how do
I orchestrate this?
Do I need to have-- can I do
this with a rock band?
Do I do it with a chamber
orchestra?
Your body is your instrument,
and you can choose a whole, I
mean, wide range of choices
with regard to that.
Whether, you know-- do you need 
to have 25 character voices or
no, the guard can sound like
the guard, like there's no--
the plot is what's moving this,
it's not the character
differentiation between
those minor characters.
Just like some pieces of music
won't-- you know,
it's like, we don't need, you 
know, a piccolo and canons for
this. We just need, you know,
three violins and a cello.
So when I'm looking at-- I don't
know that I make a genre choice
so much as I make a tonal
choice for the piece.
And that will dictate how
extreme I'm going to make a
character choice. Because you
know what?
This piece depends on
that.
That piece, not so much.
>> Dawn Ursula:
Yeah. I was just going to-- when
you first ask the question, I
was just going to say like
tone, pace, musicality are many
of the things that will help
me, like if-- I know what horror
feels like,
so when I'm going to read
horror, I want that sound to
come across. And that's going to
affect all of those things and
immediately have the listener
go, "Oh, I kind of know what to
expect from this."
You know.
>> Kathryn Marguy:
You've set us up perfectly for a
little bit of an activity,
right? To illustrate the ways
in which genre impacts the way a
narrator approaches
the text.
So I'm going to have you read
something that should sound
pretty familiar to those in
the audience, but put a genre
spin on it. Michael, I'd love
for you to read your section as
a mystery, Kimberly As a
children's book,
and Dawn, I'd love for you to
read your section as a romance.
Off you go.
>> Michael Kramer:
[serious, conspiratorial tone]
There are several emergency
exits on this aircraft: forward,
aft, and over each wing.
Please take a few moments now
to locate your nearest exit.
In some cases, your nearest
exit may be behind you.
[Laughing]
If we need to evacuate the
aircraft floor level lighting
will guide you towards the
exit.
Doors can be opened by moving
the handle in the direction
[dramatic pause] of the arrow. 
Each door is equipped with an
inflatable slide, which may also 
be detached and used as a life
raft.
>> Kimberly Schraf:
[exaggerated upbeat tone]
Oxygen and the air pressure are
always being monitored in the
event of a decompression.
An oxygen mask will
automatically appear in front of
you. To start the flow of
oxygen, pull the mask towards
you. Place it firmly over your
nose and mouth.
Secure the elastic band behind
your head and breathe normally!
Although the bag does not
inflate, oxygen is flowing in
the mask. If you're traveling
with a child or someone who
requires assistance, secure
your mask first, and then assist
the other person.
Keep your mask on until a
uniformed crew member advises
you to remove it.
In the event of an emergency,
[Laughter] please assume the
bracing position. Lean forward 
with your hands on top of your
head and elbows against your
thighs.
Ensure your feet are flat on
the floor.
A life vest is located in a
pouch under your seat or between
the armrests.
When instructed to do so, open
the plastic pouch and remove the
vest. Slip it over your head,
pass the straps under your waist
and adjust the front. To inflate
the vest,
pull firmly on the red cord
only when leaving the aircraft.
If you need to refill the vest,
blow into the mouthpieces or use
the whistle in the light to
attract attention.
Also, your seat bottom cushion
can be used as a flotation
device! Pull the cushion from
the seat, slip your arms in the
straps and hug your cushion to
your chest.
[Laughing]
>> Dawn Ursula:
[amorous tone] At this time,
your portable electronic devices
must be set to airplane mode
until the announcement is made
upon arrival. We remind you that
this is a non-smoking flight.
Tampering with, disabling, or
destroying the smoke detectors
located in the lavatories is
prohibited by law.
You will find this and all the
other safety information in the
car located in the seat pocket
in front of you.
We strongly suggest you read it
before takeoff.
If you have any questions,
please don't hesitate to ask one
of our crew members.
We wish you all an enjoyable
flight.
[Laughing and Applause]
>> Kathryn Marguy:
Thank you.
[Laughing]
Hard pivot.
You know, I want to switch gears
a little bit here-- [Laughing]
and talk about the on the
ground technique of doing what
you do. And one of the terms
that comes up again and again is
the idea of breath control,
ensuring a good quality sound
recording. So I'm curious if
you could all explain what
breath control is and how
you use it.
Kimberly, do you want to kick
us off?
>> Kimberly Schraf:
Yeah, I think it's critical.
I think it's not the first
thing you grasp in the technique
of reading an audio book.
I think my-- I'm not going to
say mastery, but my ease with
breath took a decade.
But one of the reasons why it's
so important is that it relaxes
you. If the narrator is not
relaxed, it'll be the first
poker tell for the listener:
a tension in the voice, a
ragged breath or an irregular
breath first and foremost says
to me, this is effortful
for the reader.
And so that's an impediment to
the listener.
And, you know, it takes a long
time to get past that daunting
microphone that looms in front
of your face and that is your
primary listener when you're in
the book-- when you're in the
booth reading a book.
So, breath control, if you can
breathe into your belly and not
a shallow breath into your upper
chest, [noise] sorry, microphone
, that first and
foremost for me allows ease.
And that's a big hurdle to
scale for a new narrator.
>> Michael Kramer:
Okay. Breath to me is-- it functions
two different, three different--
there are three different things
that breath does.
One, breath is the scaffolding
that holds the ideas together as
they're being constructed.
There's a whole theory that as
an actor, you-- basically what
you're doing is learning how to
breathe as the character.
And the third thing is that
breath is the medium.
It's the thing that
carries the ideas and how-- what
does that mean? When we speak,
we speak-- we tend to speak in
ideas, and the breath is
what carries that.
And as a narrator, you're
looking at words on the page.
And if you breathe in the
middle of an idea,
that idea is like an arch, and
you just put up the stones, took
a breath, and all those stones
fell down.
And now you've got to quickly
put the rest of those stones
together, and somehow the
listener has got to make sense
of what they just heard
because on the page it's an
arch; what it should be is an
arch,
but if the listener doesn't
have the page, what you did was
basically put three stones up,
they fell down, and now you've
got this thing lying there.
So that's part of the
importance of breath control,
breath control in the sense
that, yeah, you have all of this
wealth of material that you can
carry on that breath.
And that, I think, is what Kim
is talking about in terms of the
relaxation that allows you to
take that deep breath, to take
that idea because sometimes
that idea is the whole
paragraph. And where you
breathe in that paragraph will
release tension, or it will--
and when you choose not to
breathe, then you're also
increasing the tension.
And that can be very important,
especially when you get into the
excitement of something going
on.
And so oftentimes you'll
actually edit out the breaths
because, you know, you want
that tension to be there. If
you follow this just in
terms of here, if you watch it
on the stage, [pause]
you're holding your breath with
me, aren't you?
You're waiting for me to say
that next thing.
That's how you follow a
narration. That creates a tension
for the listener. That creates
dynamic emotion for the
listener. That releases the
tension for the listener.
And those things are all part
of breath control.
You can't do it if you only
have, you know, six syllables
worth of breath in your
pipes, so to speak.
So the more you can expand that,
and that takes relaxation, the
the more effective you can be,
the more choices that you have
in terms of how you're actually
communicating.
Because it's not just the
words, it's the punctuation
that's also communicating an
idea.
>> Kimberly Schraf:
We do it instinctively.
We rarely stop and wonder if we
have enough breath to get
through the next sentence. I
watched you talk, and I never
saw
a
Huge intake of air because we
just flow it.
It just-- it pumps up as we
need it.
And that's the kind of-- that's
the kind of ease that the
narrator aspires to.
Suddenly it gets hard when you
step in the booth.
I don't know why, but it kind
of does.
>> Michael Kramer:
No part of it is because you're
you're making that translation
from the visual image and
visual medium to an oral medium.
And so, in a way, print has
gone the other way.
Print tries to capture the
aural and give it a visual
image, and you're doing the
opposite with that.
And the eye apprehends
differently than the ear does.
That's one of the challenges of
narration, is that oral
narration, aural apprehension
is linear.
Your ear can't skip ahead.
It has to go with everything as
it goes.
Your eye will-- can scan a
whole page.
Your eye sees the, well, the
commission that was detailed by
this act of Congress, you see
that word, the sets of words,
and all of a sudden your eye
said, "okay that's 'A,' I know
what that is." You see those
same 6 words you can--
you automatically know you're 
skipping. You're already to the
verb. What's the verb? What's the
action? What are they doing?
But your
mouth still has to say all those
syllables.
>> Kathryn Marguy:
But you raise an interesting
point, Michael, in translating
the text of the page into a
more audio experience.
Kimberly I actually wanted to
direct a question at you,
thinking about a quintessential
kind of text to narration,
conundrum, or question, rather:
when you are looking at a text
with multiple characters, often
when they're in conversation
within a matter of
sentences, back and forth
conversation, how do you form
those characters and switch into
them, embody them in the matter
of seconds?
>> Kimberly Schraf:
To hearken back to the breath,
the simplest way that I would
say it is that on an inhale you
take in the character and on an
exhalation of speech, you
release the character's voice.
So it becomes a dance of: I have
this idea of the character in my
mind. I breathe in "the mom,"
and as I exhale, she speaks.
She might speak for half a
page, and then I breathe in her
kid and he's a little bit
different.
But that inhale lets me shift a
little bit and breathe out a
nine year old. So--
So breath is part of it, but
it's a dance and it's usually
weaving in and out of not just
voices, but third person.
He-said, she-said narrative
connective tissue.
And it is a challenge, but
it's the fun.
It's the fun dance of
narration is surfing, surfing,
dialogue.
>> Kathryn Marguy:
It's funny you call this a
dance, so you've actually
prepared a piece of narration
that I would-- I would call it
tap dance, right, a selection 
from Pride and Prejudice
by Jane Austen. Over to
you.
>> Kimberly Schraf:
That the Miss Lucas's and the
Miss Bennetts should meet to
talk over a ball was absolutely
necessary,
and the morning after the
assembly brought the former to
Longbourn to hear and to
communicate.
[shrilly]
"You began the evening.
Well, Charlotte," said Mrs.
Bennett, with civil self
command to Ms.
Lucas. "You were Mr.
Bingley's first choice."
[placidly] "Yes, but he seemed
to like his second better."
[shrilly]
"Oh, you mean Jane,
I suppose? because he danced
with her twice. To be sure,
that did seem as if he admired
her.
Indeed, I rather believe he
did.
But, however, it may all come
to nothing, you know.
Neither of the hearings were
more to the purpose than yours,
Eliza," said Charlotte.
"Mr. Darcy is not so
well worth listening to.
Is his friend, is he?
Poor Eliza, to be only just
tolerable."
"I beg you would not put it into
Lizzie's head to be vexed by Mr.
Darcy's ill treatment, for he
is such a disagreeable man that
it would be quite a misfortune
to be liked by him.
Mrs. Long told me last night
that he sat close to her for
half an hour without once
opening his lips."
"Are you quite sure, ma'am?
Is not there a little mistake?"
Said Jane.
"I certainly saw Mr.
Darcy speaking to her. Miss
Bingley told me that he never
speaks much unless among his
intimate acquaintances with whom
he is remarkably agreeable."
[shrilly] "I do not 
believe a word of it, my dear.
If he had not been so very
agreeable, he would have talked
to Mrs. Long. But I can guess
how it was.
Everybody says that he is eat
up with pride.
I do not mind his not talking
to Mrs.
Long," said Miss Lucas, "but I
wish he had danced with Eliza."
"Another time, Lizzie,"
said her mother. "I would not
dance with him if I were you."
"I believe, ma'am, I may safely
promise you never to dance with
him. One cannot wonder," said
Miss Lucas, "that so very fine
a young man with family
fortune,
everything in his favour, should
think highly of himself."
"If I may so express it.
He has a right to be proud."
"That is very true," replied
Elizabeth.
"And I could easily forgive his
pride if he had not mortified
mine." "Pride," observed Mary,
who peeked herself upon the
solidity of her reflections, 
"is a very common feeling, I
believe, by all that I have
ever read,
I am convinced that there are
very few of us who do
not cherish a feeling of self
complacency on the score of some
quality or other, real or
imaginary.""
"If I were as rich as Mr.
Darcy,"" cried a young Lucas who
came with his sisters, "I should
not care how proud I was.
I would keep a pack of fox
hounds and drink a bottle of
wine every day."
"And if I were to see you do
it," said Mrs.
Bennett, "I should take away
your bottle directly."
[Applause]
>> Kathryn Marguy:
Thank you. Michael, I'd love to
turn to you and hear your
thoughts on the role that
pacing plays in effective
storytelling.
>> Michael Kramer:
Well, pacing is, again, part of
the breath control.
It's how-- to me,
it's the most-- one of the
most important things in the
story.
There's the content, and then
there's the pacing, and the two
weave together become-- you make
it-- make the emotional content
of the piece much more effective.
I guess. Yeah, [Laugh] 
I'm looking for where I'm--
This piece here. Okay.
Yeah.
>> Kathryn Marguy:
Excellent.
Please start us out.
So this is a sample from The
Wizard of Oz by Frank Baum.
>> Michael Kramer:
Uncle Henry never laughed.
He worked hard from morning
'til night and did not know what
joy was.
He was grey also, from his long
beard to his rough boots, and he
looked stern and solemn and
rarely spoke.
It was Toto that made Dorothy
laugh and saved her from growing
as grey as her other
surroundings. Toto was not grey.
He was a little black dog with
long, silky hair and small black
eyes that twinkled merrily on
either side of his
funny, wee nose. Toto played all
day long, and Dorothy played
with him and loved him dearly.
Today, however, they were not
playing.
Uncle Henry sat upon the
doorstep and looked anxiously at
the sky, which was even grayer
than usual.
Dorothy stood in the door with
Toto in her arms and looked at
the sky, too.
Aunt Em was washing the dishes.
Far to the north, they heard a
low wail of the wind,
and Uncle Henry and Dorothy
could see where the long grass
bowed in waves before the
coming storm.
There now came a sharp
whistling in the air from the
south. And as they turned their
eyes that way, they saw ripples
in the grass coming from that
direction also.
Suddenly, Uncle Henry stood up.
"There's a cyclone comin', Em,"
he called to his wife.
"I'll go look after the stock."
Then he ran toward the sheds
where the cows and horses were
kept. Aunt Em dropped her work
and came to the door.
One glance told her of the
danger
close at hand. "Quick, Dorothy!"
she screamed.
"Run for the cellar!"
Toto jumped out of Dorothy's
arms and hid under the bed and
the girls started to get him. 
Aunt Em,
badly frightened, threw open
the trap door in the floor and
climb down the ladder into the
small, dark hole.
Dorothy caught Toto at last and
started to follow her aunt.
When she was halfway across the
room, there came a great shriek
from the wind, and the house
shook so hard that she lost her
footing and sat down suddenly
upon the floor.
Then a strange thing happened.
The house swirled around two or
three times and rose slowly
through the air.
Dorothy felt as if she were
going up in a balloon.
The north and south winds met
where the house stood and made
it the exact centre of the
cyclone. In the middle of a
cyclone, the air is generally
still, but the great pressure of
the wind on every side of the
house raised it up higher and
higher until it was at the very
top of the cyclone.
And there it remained and was
carried miles and miles away as
easily as you could carry a
feather.
It was very dark, and the wind
howled horribly around her,
but Dorothy found she was
riding quite easily.
After the first few whirls
around and one other time, when
the house tipped badly, she
felt as if she were being rocked
gently, like a baby in a
cradle.
Toto did not like it.
He ran about the room,
now here, now there, barking
loudly.
But Dorothy sat quite still on
the floor and waited to see what
would happen. Once Toto got to
near the open trap door and fell
in. And at first the little
girl thought she had lost him,
but soon she saw one of his
ears sticking up through the
hole, for the strong pressure of
the air was keeping him up so
that he could not fall.
She crept to the hole, caught
Toto by the ear, and dragged him
into the room again, afterward
closing the trap door so that no
more accidents could happen.
Hour after hour passed away,
and slowly Dorothy got over her
fright,
but she felt quite lonely,
and the wind shrieked so loudly
all about her that she nearly
became deaf.
At first, she had wondered if
she would be dashed to pieces
when the house fell again,
but as the hours passed and
nothing terrible happened, she
stopped worrying and resolved
to wait calmly and see what the
future would bring.
At last, she crawled over the
swinging floor to her bed and
laid down upon it, and Toto
followed and laid down beside
her. In spite of the swaying of
the house and the wailing of the
wind, Dorothy soon closed her
eyes and fell fast asleep.
[Applause]
>> Kathryn Marguy:
Dawn, I'd love to turn to you
and hear your thoughts on this.
You know, there's something to
be said about pairing the right
narrator with the right book.
I'm curious,
have you ever started narrating
a book and just not
found a way in, or not been
able to connect to a character?
>> Dawn Ursula:
Yes. There have been times when
luckily I found out ahead of
time, when I've scanned before
and been able to tell:
this is-- I'm not the right
one for this, and not start the
project. There was once where I
did start it because I thought I
was going to love this book.
It was historical non-fiction.
I was really interested in the
subject matter, but I did not
connect with the author's style
and I didn't know my boss was
going to be here for this
story. She is. [Laughter]
She's hidden. But she came to
me and she said, "Dawn, I think
you need to start the book
again. I listened to it and
you sound bored." 
[Gasps]
And she was right!
[Laughter]
And I was like: oh, my gosh,
I'm so sorry.
Will you help me?
And one of the ways that she
said, try this, and it worked,
and I loved it, and I've used
it ever since.
She said: pretend you're the
author.
You wrote this. You're
passionate about this.
You spent who knows how long
researching all of this.
You got it publication and
wrote
300 pages worth!
Own it, love it like it's yours,
And read as if it's your work.
And that was it.
That was it. It was amazing.
Thanks.
>> Kimberly Schraf:
She's smart.
She's smart.
>> Dawn Ursula:
She's good at what she does.
There are times, though-- and
I'm thinking about the segue
into my piece--
there are times, though, when I
have turned down books and where
I feel like a narrator should
say, "No, I'm not the one for
this." Sometimes it's genre
connection--
I'm also an advocate for
knowing when you do not identify
with something very important
in the book in which another
narrator will be better.
I'm using code, but I think you
know where I'm going.
It's not my race, it's not my
culture.
There is things going on in
this that somebody else's direct
connection, understanding is
going to be a stronger, more
important, better for the
listener, better for the author,
voice, and the piece that I'm
getting ready without spoiling
it-- just because they can't
tell-- the piece that I'm getting
ready to read from is about
two-- in this scene, at least,
two black women who are passing
for white women.
And yet this story is so
specifically from the
African-American culture.
The whole story needs someone
who understands or has a
connection to the delicate
nuances of what's
happening in this story.
>> Kathryn Marguy:
I totally agree. To that end,
please--
so you've prepared a reading
from from Nella Larsen's
Passing.
>> Dawn Ursula:
Yes. Suddenly, her small fright
increased.
Her neighbor had risen and was
coming towards her.
What was going to happen now?
"Pardon me," the woman said
pleasantly.
"But I think I know you."
Her slightly husky voice held a
dubious note, looking up at her.
Irene's suspicions and fears
vanished.
There was no mistaking the
friendliness of that smile or
resisting its charm.
Instantly, she surrendered to
it and smiled too, as she said,
"I'm afraid you're mistaken."
"Why, of course I know you!"
The other exclaimed.
"Don't tell me you're not Irene
Westover,
or do they still call you
Rini?"
In the brief second before her
answer, Irene tried vainly to
recall where and when this
woman could have known her.
There in Chicago and before her
marriage,
that was plain. High school?
College? YWCA committees?
High school, most likely.
What white girls
had she known well enough to
have been familiarly addressed
as Rini by them?
The woman before her didn't fit
her memory of any of them.
Who was she?
"Yes. I'm Irene Westover, and
though nobody calls me Rini
anymore, it's good to hear the
name again.
And you?""
She hesitated, ashamed that she
could not remember, and hoping
that the sentence would be
finished for her.
"Don't you know me,
not really, Rini?
"I'm sorry, but just at the
minute, I can't seem to place
you." Irene studied the lovely
creature standing beside her for
some clue to her identity.
Who could she be?
Where and when had they met?
And through her perplexity,
there came the thought that the
trick, which her memory had
played her, was, for some reason
more gratifying than
disappointing to her old
acquaintance, that she didn't
mind not being recognized. And
too, Irene felt that she was
just about to remember her, for
about the woman with some
quality, an intangible,
something, too vague to define,
too remote to seize, but which
was, to Irene Redfield, very
familiar.
And that voice, surely she'd
heard those husky tones
somewhere before.
Perhaps before time, contact, or
something had been at them,
making them into a voice
remotely suggesting England.
Could it have been in Europe
that they had met? Rini...
No. "Perhaps," Irene began.
"You," the woman laughed,
a lovely laugh, a small
sequence of notes that was like
a trill, and also like the
ringing of a delicate bell
fashioned of a precious metal,
a tinkling.
Irene drew a quick, sharp
breath.
"Clare?" She exclaimed, "Not
really,
Clare Kendry?"