Thriving Narrators Retreat
Providing space for Creativity, Business Growth, and Camaraderie for Audiobook Professionals
Nestled in the vibrant heart of Cincinnati, OH, the Thriving Narrators Retreat is a unique opportunity for audiobook narrators to learn and grow together, alongside producers, coaches, casting directors, and fellow narrators.
Hosted by award-winning narrator and creative entrepreneurship coach Jennifer Jill Araya, the Thriving Narrators Retreat provides four days packed with opportunities for honing your craft, expanding your business, and building relationships within the audiobook community.
August 27-30, 2026
at the Clifton Cultural Arts Center in Cincinnati, OH
Learn the Craft
The Thriving Narrators Retreat will include ample time to study the craft of audiobook narration, with the guidance of our retreat presenters and the support of your colleagues.
Each of the four days of the retreat will provide focused learning opportunities, including workshops, seminars, masterclasses, and group coaching sessions.
Study the Business
Audiobook narration requires balancing the creative and business sides of your work, often a difficult task.
The Thriving Narrators Retreat is the perfect opportunity to collaborate with your colleagues as you seek to build an audiobook business that works.
Connect with Your Colleagues
No man is an island, and no audiobook narrator is an island! The audiobook industry is built on the supportive, nurturing relationships between the artists and actors who inhabit the audiobook community.
The Thriving Narrators Retreat allows you to spend time "in real life" with your audiobook colleagues and friends, sharing experiences and building relationships that will help all of us take ownership of our true identity as thriving audiobook professionals. We can do it, together.
Is This Retreat Right for You?
The Thriving Narrators Retreat is for working audiobook narrators who are seeking to develop their audiobook narration performance skills, and who are striving to improve their knowledge and understanding of the audiobook business in general, and their audiobook narration business in particular.
This retreat is not for narrators who are new to the audiobook business. (If you are new to the audiobook world, check out this coaching option instead, as it would likely be a much better fit for your needs.)
To get maximum value from the retreat programming, attendees at the Thriving Narrators Retreat should have experience narrating audiobooks and should also have completed some audiobook-specific coaching.
If you're not sure if the Thriving Narrators Retreat is right for you, reach out and ask. We are happy to answer any questions you have!
Thriving Narrators Retreat Presenters
Jennifer Jill Araya
Award-winning audiobook narrator Jennifer Jill Araya has been listening to audiobooks since she was a young child, and the fact that she now gets to narrate audiobooks for a living is a dream come true. A two-time Audie Award Winner, Earphones Award Recipient, multiple SOVAS Award Winner and Finalist, American Library Association YALSA Amazing Audiobooks Award Winner, and three-time Independent Audiobook Award Finalist, Jennifer has narrated over 500 audiobooks for a variety of publishers and producers, including Penguin Random House Audio, Simon & Schuster Audio, HarperAudio, Blackstone Publishing, and Audible Studios. In addition to narrating books in virtually every genre (and loving every second of it!), Jennifer also coaches other artist business owners, like herself, in creative entrepreneurship within her coaching community, Starving Artist No More. When she’s not narrating, Jennifer can be found hiking, biking, running, or generally exploring her home city of Cincinnati with her husband Arturo (aka “Partner in Crime”).
Vikas Adam
Vikas Adam is a highly sought after genre fluid narrator with over 500 audiobooks to his name. He's a multiple award winner with 25 Earphones, an Audie, a Voice Arts Award, and an inaugural inductee into the Audible Narrator Hall of Fame. He's faculty at the UCLA School of Theater Film and Television and founding faculty for narrator.life.
Arturo Araya
Arturo has always had dual – sometimes competing, sometimes collaborating – passions in both music and technology. After studying Cello Performance at Oberlin Conservatory and the University of Cincinnati's College-Conservatory of Music, and then performing as Principal Cellist of the Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra in Shenzhen, PRC, Arturo's career took him to the technology sector, where he is currently a tech lead for Fifth Third Bank. Arturo still performs music as a tenured member of the Springfield Symphony, and he also nurtures a parallel vocation as audio engineer. He has engineered over 200 audiobooks, with multiple awards nominations. He is also part of the creative teams behind the Crafting Audiobooks and Starving Artist No More podcasts.
Andi Arndt
Andi Arndt is an acclaimed Audiobook Narrator known for her captivating voice and ability to bring stories to life. Hear her award-winning sound across genres, and find Andi in the Audible Narrator Hall of Fame. Called "a remarkable narrator" by AudioFile Magazine, Andi is a favorite among listeners, authors, and publishers alike. Her work has earned 3 Audie Awards and 4 Audie Finalist Medallions, 6 AudioFile Earphones Awards, and she's twice been mentioned on AudioFile's list of the Best Voices of the Year.
Almeda Beynon
Almeda Beynon is an award–winning audiobook producer and Director of Audio Production at Sourcebooks Audio, where she leads in-house production across a wide range of genres. Beyond production, she is active in the audiobook community—advocating for creative excellence and collaboration between authors, narrators, and production teams. Almeda holds a master’s degree in sound design from Carnegie Mellon University and has worked across theatre, live events, and recorded audio. When she’s not making audiobooks, Almeda can be found crafting possum themed Mardi Gras throws, keeping the world whimsical for her toddler, and watching the sunset on the bayou.
Jesse Bickford
Jesse Bickford is the senior producer for Blackstone Publishing, and has been with the company for 17 years. She also moonlights as a narration coach under her company, Book Dragon Coaching. Working in the audiobook industry is a dream come true for Jesse, who is a lifelong lover of books and storytelling. When not audiobooking, Jesse can be found enjoying the offerings around Southern Oregon (so much delicious food and wine!), playing with her unmannerly but adorable dogs, creating elaborate obstacle courses for her tortoise, or just getting cozy with a good book.
Scott Brick
Scott Brick has recorded bestsellers and Pulitzer-Prize winners for every major publisher in every conceivable category, over 1100 titles, including JURASSIC PARK, THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER, IN COLD BLOOD, BLADERUNNER, and the entire DUNE saga. In addition to over 60 Earphones Awards and two Grammy nominations, he’s also received eight Audie Awards. Scott is both an AudioFile Magazine Golden Voice and an inaugural member of the Audible Narrator Hall of Fame, and his work has been profiled in THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES and ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY, and PUBLISHER’S WEEKLY has twice named him their Audiobook Narrator of the Year. In 2015 Scott began teaching the nation’s first fully-accredited university course in audiobook narration at UCLA.
Michele Cobb
Michele Cobb is a leading expert in the $2.2 billion North American audiobook industry, and over the past decade of digital transformation has been a sought-after speaker at more than 100 conferences in the Americas, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. A partner at Forté Business Consulting, which specializes in strategic business development for the publishing industry, Michele has held executive leadership positions at five publishing industry associations. Formerly Publisher of AudioFile Magazine, Michele is now Enterprise Advertising Director for Kirkus reviews. Michele is also the publisher of independent audiobook company MMB Media and is Executive Producer of the award-winning Stories of Impact Podcast.
Steven Jay Cohen
Steven has been telling stories his whole life; professionally, since 1991. His guiding principle – in all things, serve the story – tends to make his approach bardic in nature, nurturing the magical moment kindled when words are shared mouth to ear. He studied acting with Uta Hagen and F. Murray Abraham, honed his writing while mentored by Allen Ginsberg and Frank McCourt, and learned the intricacies of recording spoken stories under the direction of Isaiah Sheffer at Symphony Space. A bit of a literary magpie, Steven weaves together these diverse influences and experiences, revealing captivating narratives, awakening audiences to new worlds and points of view.
Khai Dattoli
Khai Dattoli has been an audiobook casting director for the past decade. She's cast projects for the major publishing companies, including Scholastic, HarperCollins, Recorded Books, Simon and Schuster, and Hachette while working with Deyan Audio, the largest audiobook production company on the West Coast. In 2023 she accepted a casting director position with Podium Entertainment, the fastest growing digital-first publisher in North America, where she enjoys working with the leading authors in Genre Fiction and trending Non-Fiction. Favorite projects she's worked on are the "SlappyWorld" series by R.L. Stine, the Randy Savage biography "Macho Man," and the "Dungeon Life" series in the growing sub-genre of LitRPG.
Suzanne Elise Freeman
Suzanne is an Audie Award-winning narrator of over 500 titles for every major publisher, for authors including James Patterson, Justin Cronin and Liv Constantine. Her history as an award-winning broadcast journalist with an inquisitive nature led her to create and host the APA webcast “The Talkback” — with over 75 episodes and counting — and to becoming a regular speaker on the nationwide conference circuit about all things audiobooks. In addition, her background as a contestant on The Bachelor presented her with the unique opportunity to create a niche within the audiobook industry, becoming the go-to narrator for nonfiction titles about reality television such as MOST DRAMATIC EVER: THE HISTORY OF THE BACHELOR and THIS FAR, the harrowing autobiography of a dancer who made her name on So You Think You Can Dance. To quote Ted Lasso, she is curious, not judgmental. She also strives to be a goldfish, and is 100% a lion, not a panda.
Dion Graham
Dion Graham, from HBO’s The Wire, also narrates The First 48 on A&E. An award-winning and critically acclaimed actor and narrator, he has performed on Broadway, Off-Broadway, internationally, in films, and in various hit television series. Working with publishers large and small, he's been honored with numerous Audie Awards, the LA Times Book Prize, the Odyssey Award and Odyssey Honors, many AudioFile Earphone awards, and multiple PW Listen Up Awards. He's been named an AudioFile Golden Voice, Booklist's Voice Of Choice, a member of Audible’s Hall Of Fame, Publishers Weekly's Narrator Of The Year, and to various other 'Best Of' lists. Known for excellence across genres, his performances have been praised as thoughtful and compelling, vivid and full of life.
Jessica Kaye
Publishing and entertainment lawyer Jessica Kaye has produced/directed multiple Grammy Award-winning audiobooks. She has served on the boards of Audio Publishers Association, Mystery Writers of America and is on the board of Screamfest Film Festival. Jessica co-owns audiobook production company Curated Audio LLC and owns audiobook distribution company Big Happy Family. She authored THE GUIDE TO PUBLISHING AUDIOBOOKS (Writers Digest Books, 2019), created MEETING ACROSS THE RIVER (anthology, BloomsburyUSA, 2005) and contributed to CULPRITS (Datura, 2024) and OCCUPIED EARTH (Polis Books, 2015). CULPRITS is a limited series for DISNEY+, streaming on Hulu in the US.
Kat Littrell
Kat Littrell is a Knight-Thompson Speechwork trained dialect coach, and an experienced actor and audiobook narrator. She loves nothing more than geeking about voice and speech. Kat has an internationally trained ear, and has studied and worked across Australia, the US and the UK. She is part of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music as an adjunct faculty member in the Acting and Voice Departments. She is also currently completing her MFA in Voice Studies from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.
Soneela Nankani
Soneela has been a book nerd for as long as she can remember. Add to that her multicultural upbringing, her extensive travels and her MFA in Acting from Columbia and it’s no wonder she’s now an award-winning narrator with over 500 titles, a deep love of storytelling and a facility with languages and dialects. Over her 15-year narrating career, her audiobooks have been featured in Best Audiobooks lists by The New York Times, AudioFile Magazine, Audible and The Washington Post and she has been awarded AudioFile magazine’s Golden Voice Lifetime Achievement Honor. She is also a doting mom of 2, a novice knitter, an avid tennis player and a member of PANA, APA and SAG-AFTRA.
Mandi Ogle
Mandi Ogle is an award-winning audiobook producer and director at HarperCollins Publishers. She has produced titles in nearly every genre, including the multicast production of The Last Dream by Pedro Almodovar, Kelsey Grammer's heartbreaking memoir, Karen: A Brother Remembers, and children's titles including Clydeo Takes a Bite out of Life by Jennifer Aniston. One of Mandi's passions is directing memoirs and children's books. She has also produced audiobooks by renowned HarperCollins authors including Zora Neale Hurston, Shel Silverstein, Thich Nhat Hanh, and Elmore Leonard. Mandi has built strong relationships with colleagues across the audiobook industry and served as both a panelist and co-chair at the Audio Publishers Association Conference (APAC). Before working at HarperCollins, Mandi was a production coordinator at Penguin Random House Audio and an independent producer and narrator.
Shannon Parks
Shannon Parks (aka Marguerite Gavin) has been a professional audiobook narrator, actor, and performance coach for over 20 years with over 600 titles, numerous Audie nominations and Earphones awards, and a devoted fan following. She is also a seasoned theater veteran, acting and directing and hundreds of professional productions. A highly respected acting teacher and narration performance coach, she was on the graduate Acting faculty at Catholic University of America, directed children of all ages in Shakespeare for many years, and now coaches narrators in the art of acting the audiobook She is the lucky mom of two grown children, and is blessed to live at the Delaware beach, where she can usually be found in her recording booth, at the theater, or playing by the sea.
Jonathan Pennock
Jonathan Pennock is an award-winning Audiobook Producer and Director for Brilliance Publishing with over 10 years of experience across all levels of production. Starting out as an engineer recording some of the top voices in the industry, Jonathan grew to love the process and was determined to get more involved with directing, casting, and production. He has worked with a wide range of talent from novice to celebrity, and has experience coaching and directing authors for narration. He has a passion for collaborating with authors and performers to help tell the best possible story in audio. When he’s not absorbed in a gritty Southern Gothic, he loves spending time with his wife, 2 dogs, and his distressing hockey teams.
Melanie Schmidt
Melanie Schmidt is a Senior Producer with Hachette Audio. She began directing audiobooks in 2017, and joined the Hachette Audio team as a producer in 2022. She works across genres, and specializes in complex multicasts. She has worked with numerous high-profile authors and narrators, including Neko Case, Mark Ronson, Peter Wolf, Donna Tartt, Joshua Jackson, Aja Naomi King, Chris Pine, and Reese Witherspoon.
Erin Spencer
Erin Spencer is an award-winning audiobook producer, director, and narrator with a background in film, television, and theater. Her work is defined by creative precision, thoughtful collaboration, and a deep respect for storytelling in all its forms. At the encouragement of a beloved indie romance author, Erin launched One Night Stand Studios, an audiobook production company that quickly became a leader in the romance genre. After producing thousands of successful titles and building a trusted name in the indie space, she felt the pull to expand her focus and return to her roots—partnering with publishers across every genre. With that, Bespoke Audioworks was born. Erin set out to build a team of passionate audiobook listeners and creative professionals who treat every title not as a product, but as a performance. She’s known for her sharp instincts, collaborative style, and her ability to bring out the best in both narrators and material. And yes—she still loves a good cocktail party!
Megan Tusing
Megan is an award-winning audiobook narrator, producer and coach raised in the Allegheny Mountains of West Virginia, now based in Brooklyn. She has recorded over 400 audiobooks with such publishers as Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, Harper Collins, and Macmillan, as well as indie authors. She is also the owner of the audio production company, Little But Fierce Productions®. She has numerous credits in stage, film, and television and is a proud Theatre alumni of James Madison University. When not on stage or in the booth, she can be found knitting or in the company of good friends.
The Details
Date & Time:
Thursday through Sunday, August 27-30, 2026.
Retreat activities will begin at 4:00pm ET on Thursday, and will last through 6:00pm ET on Sunday.
Retreat Presenters:
The Thriving Narrators Retreat Presenters are an accomplished group of audiobook narrators, coaches, and casting professionals. We are all excited to share our time and expertise with you!
The Presenters for 2026 include Jennifer Jill Araya, Vikas Adam, Arturo Araya, Andi Arndt, Almeda Beynon, Jesse Bickford, Scott Brick, Michele Cobb, Steven Jay Cohen, Khai Datolli, Suzanne Elise Freeman, Dion Graham, Jessica Kaye, Kat Littrell, Soneela Nankani, Mandi Ogle, Shannon Parks, Jonathan Pennock, Melanie Schmidt, Erin Spencer, and Megan Tusing.
Health and Safety:
We take it as a given that, as audiobook narrators (and as human beings), our health is vitally important. We will have N-95 and surgical face masks available for everyone who chooses to wear one, HEPA air filters in each event room, and a red-yellow-green lanyard system so attendees can indicate their comfort with physical closeness. We also ask that all attendees take Covid tests prior to travel and submit a photo of their negative tests. (Details of how to do this will be made available to all attendees prior to the retreat.)
Location:
All retreat activities will take place in the beautiful Clifton Cultural Arts Center, or CCAC, located at 3412 Clifton Ave, Cincinnati, OH 45220 in the heart of Cincinnati's vibrant and bohemian Clifton neighborhood.
Lodging:
Lodging for retreat attendees is available at the Hampton Inn & Suites, which is a walkable one mile from the CCAC. We will also be providing shuttles between the hotel and CCAC at key points during each day of the retreat for those who prefer not to walk.
A link for the retreat's group hotel block will be made available to those who are registered for the retreat. The Hampton Inn & Suites offers a complimentary breakfast.
**Please note that since retreat activities will last through the entire day on Sunday, August 30, we recommend that you plan to depart Cincinnati on Monday morning, August 31.**
Retreat attendees are responsible for making their own hotel reservations. The hotel cost is not included in the retreat participation fee. We encourage attendees to share rooms with their audiobook friends and colleagues to reduce cost.
Retreat Fee: $1,647, which includes ...
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Four focused days of audiobook learning, entrepreneurship coaching, and relationship building, guided by our incredible Retreat Presenters.
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Catered hors d'oeuvres during Thursday's opening celebration.
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Catered box lunch Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
Cancellation & Refund Policy: In the unfortunate event that a registered attendee is unable to participate in the 2026 Thriving Narrators Retreat, here is our cancellation and refund policy: Cancellations before July 1, 2026 will be refunded the full retreat amount, minus transaction fees (which equal approximately $30-$65, depending on the method of payment used). Cancellations July 1 through July 14, 2026 will be refunded 50% of the retreat amount, again minus transaction fees. Cancellations on or after July 15, 2026 will not be refunded.
