Ruffalo Feels the Bern for Macmillan
Actor and social activist Mark Ruffalo, an outspoken supporter of Sen. Bernie Sanders during Sanders’s run for the Democratic nomination for president, joined Sanders to narrate part of the audiobook edition of Our Revolution: A Future to Believe In, to be published November 15 by Macmillan Audio. On the audiobook, Sanders shares his experiences on the campaign trail and lays out his ideas for continuing a political revolution that will fight for a progressive agenda in the areas of economics, the environment, race relations, and social justice in order to create jobs, raise wages, protect the environment, and provide healthcare for all. In an interview with MSNBC, Ruffalo noted, “There’s an authenticity about him and about his history and about his career as a politician that speaks to me.”
Our Revolution is also the name of a 501(c)(4) organization inspired by Sanders’s presidential campaign and launched during that bid, in September, by some of his most dedicated supporters. The group has the tagline “Campaigns end. Revolutions endure” on its website and aims to unify Sanders supporters in their battle for progressive change.
Jones Rises at Hachette Writer and LGBTQ and AIDS activist Cleve Jones recently recorded his memoir When We Rise: My Life in the Movement at San Francisco’s Women’s Audio Mission studio. Tommy Harron, producer for this project, selected WAM, which is a nonprofit dedicated to the advancement of women in the recording arts, as a way to pay tribute to Jones’s lifelong commitment to equality and inclusion. The Hachette Audio title goes on sale November 29.
Jones’s story chronicles his life in the sexually liberated San Francisco of the 1970s, through the AIDS crisis of the 1980s, and into the present day as he works for marriage equality. His account has, in part, inspired a forthcoming ABC miniseries, also entitled When We Rise, from Oscar-winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black (Milk), which explores the personal and political struggles of a group of people during the gay-rights movement that began with the Stonewall Riots in 1969.
Harper Tracks Signs of ‘Alien’ Life
Ancient Aliens, the hit History Network program that explores the possibility of alien influence on our ancient civilizations and cultures and that is the brainchild of Giorgio Tsoukalos (who also stars), has inspired a companion print book and audiobook. For the HarperAudio recording, due out November 15, Tsoukalos joined narrator Robert Clotworthy as well as actors Bill Mumy and Angela Cartwright, both of iconic TV show Lost in Space fame, in the studio.
Naxos Opens ‘The Door’
Siân Thomas, the Welsh actress known in the U.S. for her role as Amelia Bones in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, reads The Door by the late Magda Szabó, one of Hungary’s most noted writers, for Naxos Audiobooks, scheduled for a February 2017 release. Naxos obtained exclusive rights to the title, and this marks the first time The Door has been recorded for audio. The book was previously adapted for a 2012 feature film starring Helen Mirren.
Kendrick Is Somebody at S&S
Academy Award– and Tony-nominated actress Anna Kendrick (Up in the Air, Pitch Perfect) reads the audio edition of Scrappy Little Nobody, her collection of essays that reflect on her personal and professional life, to be published by Simon & Schuster Audio on November 15. She shares stories of her journey from being a middle school student who also starred on Broadway (High Society) to navigating life as an adult with a Hollywood career.
Full Cast on Board for Harper’s Prize-Winning ‘Rebuttal’
Last May, the play Rebuttal by Jyotsna Hariharan was selected as the grand prize winner of HarperAudio’s radio-drama contest, which was open to students and alumni of the Goldberg Department of Dramatic Writing at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. The grand prize was a publishing agreement for an unabridged, multivoice audio production. The completed project goes on sale November 15 and is performed by a cast including Phoebe Strole, Michael Crouch, Nina Mehta, Peter Ganim, and Dan Bittner. The story of two opinionated multicultural high school students who bond during a debate contest was written specifically “for the ear” and is available only in audio format.
Christianaudio’s Vision of ‘Hope’
Young Christian Buchanan was born in 2011 with a medical condition so rare there are only 50 known cases in the world. His birth defect of a Tessier cleft lip and palate and cleft eyes has meant that he suffers blindness and has endured many surgeries already in his short life. Christian’s mother Lacey has been chronicling her family’s journey and sharing their story since Christian was born. On the audiobook Through the Eyes of Hope, which will be published by Christianaudio on Jan. 10, 2017, Lacey Buchanan reads her account of enormous love and of trusting in God in the face of adversity.
Goodkind Feathers His ‘Nest’ with HighBridge
Bestselling author Terry Goodkind’s newest novel, the paranormal thriller Nest, is read by Audie Award–winning narrator Elisabeth Rodgers. Rodgers is the voice of Kate, a woman who gets caught up in the police investigation of a brutal murder and discovers she has the ability to identify killers by looking into their eyes—a circumstance that makes her a target for terror. HighBridge Audio publishes Nest on November 15.
Moving In, Moving Up at PRH
Amanda D’Acierno, publisher of Penguin Random House Audio, recently announced several new hires and promotions within her division’s editorial and operations teams. On the editorial side, Catherine Bucaria has been promoted to senior acquisitions editor; Emily Parlima has been promoted to editor, Listening Library; and Megan Mills was promoted to assistant acquisitions editor. Changes to the operations-staff lineup include Renee Watson, who has been promoted to coordinator, digital operations; Julie Guacci and Alex Korcz, who both joined the operations team in the position of digital operations assistant; Heather Palmer, who has been added to the team as a managing editorial assistant; and Taylor Travis, who comes aboard as operations group assistant.
Libro.fm Increases Its Indie Bookstore Presence
In late October, Seattle-based Libro.fm, a provider of digital audiobooks for independent bookstores, announced that it expanded its reach to more than 160 U.S. retailers. Libro.fm teams with indies to offer curated lists of audiobook titles via a “free, cobranded digital audiobook storefront.” Listeners can purchase titles from the bookstore site of their choice, and then find their titles in a personal, account-linked listening library when they download the Libro.fm app.
