The Storytellers

After earning a degree in business administration at NYU, Mark Rubinstein served in the US Army as a field medic tending to paratroopers of the 82nd Airborne Division.

After his discharge he returned to college, went to medical school, and became a physician, then a psychiatrist. As a forensic psychiatrist, he was an expert witness in many trials. As an attending psychiatrist at New York Presbyterian Hospital in New York City and a clinical assistant professor of psychiatry at Cornell, he taught psychologists, psychiatric residents, nurses, and social workers while practicing psychiatry.

Rubinstein’s high-octane thrillers Mad Dog House (2012) and its sequel, Mad Dog Justice (2014), were both finalists for the Foreword Book of the Year Award. His novella The Foot Soldier won the silver award in the 2014 Benjamin Franklin Awards competition, in the Popular Fiction category. His novella Return to Sandara (2014), won the gold IPPY Award for Suspense/Fiction. The Lovers’ Tango won the gold medal in Popular Fiction at the 2016 Benjamin Franklin Awards. His most recent novel is Mad Dog Vengeance (2017), the last book in the Mad Dog trilogy.

Before turning to fiction, he coauthored five self-help books on psychological and medical topics.

His latest nonfiction books are Bedlam’s Door (a finalist for the 2017 Benjamin Franklin Award in Nonfiction) and Beyond Bedlam’s Door. Both are sets of stories about patients he’s treated or evaluated as a psychiatrist and forensic psychiatrist.

His most recent book is a nonfiction work entitled The Storytellers: Straight Talk from the World’s Most Acclaimed Suspense and Thriller Authors, a compilation of candid interviews with writers whose novels have been worldwide bestsellers.

He now writes fiction and nonfiction, has been a contributor to the Huffington Post, was a contributor to Psychology Today, contributes columns to Literary Hub’s Crime Reads, and is a book reviewer for the New York Journal of Books.

Visit his website at www.MarkRubinstein-Author.com

Robertson Dean has acted on- and off-Broadway and in many leading roles at regional theaters throughout the United States. His film work includes Star Trek: Nemesis and Vanilla Sky.

Simon Vance is the critically acclaimed narrator of approximately 400 audiobooks, winner of 27 AudioFile Earphones Awards, and a 12-time Audie Award-winner. He won an Audie in 2006 in the category of Science Fiction and was named the 2011 Best Voice in Biography and History and in 2010 Best Voice in Fiction by AudioFile magazine. 

 Vance has been a narrator for the past 25 years, and also worked for many years as a BBC Radio presenter and newsreader in London.  Some of his best-selling and most praised audiobook performances include Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Hilary Mantel’s Bring Up the Bodies (an Audie award-winner), Ian Fleming’s Casino Royale, Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, Patrick O’Brian’s Master and Commander series (all 21 titles), the new productions of Frank Herbert’s original Dune series, and Rob Gifford’s China Road (an AudioFile 2007 Book of the Year). Vance lives near San Francisco with his wife and two sons.

Kirsten Potter is an award-winning audiobook narrator who has performed on stage, film, and television. Having graduated from Boston University's School for the Arts, she has received recognition from the American Academy of Achievement and the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts.

Robert Fass is the two-time winner of the prestigious Audie Award, numerous AudioFile Earphones Awards, and a veteran actor who has narrated over two hundred audiobooks. He has worked on projects from authors such as Ray Bradbury, John Steinbeck, Saul Bellow, T.S. Eliot, Joyce Carol Oates, Carlos Fuentes, Jeffrey Deaver, and Lee Child, as well as bestselling and prize-winning nonfiction works in history, politics, health, journalism, philosophy, business, and memoir.

Keith Szarabajka has appeared in many films, including The Dark Knight, Missing, and A Perfect World, and on such television shows as The Equalizer, Angel, Cold Case, Golden Years, and Profit. Szarabajka has also appeared in several episodes of Selected Shorts for National Public Radio. He won the 2001 Audie Award for Unabridged Fiction for his reading of Tom Robbins’s Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates and has won several Earphones Awards.

Richard Poe, a professional actor for more than thirty years, has appeared in numerous Broadway shows, including 1776 and M. Butterfly. On TV, he has had recurring roles on Star Trek and Frasier. His films include Born on the Fourth of July and Presumed Innocent. He is a well-known and prolific audio book performer, having narrated more than fifty books.

Marc Vietor, an AudioFile Earphones Award–winning narrator, is an actor working with the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, Sundance Theatre Lab, Ravinia Festival, Royal Shakespeare Company, The Old Globe, and many others. His film and television credits include Asylum Seekers, Law & Order, and Onion News Network. He has narrated many books for Audible.com, including the award-winning 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami. He is a graduate of Yale University and The Juilliard School.

Karen White is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of twenty-five novels, including Dreams of Falling and The Night the Lights Went Out. She has two grown children and currently lives near Atlanta, Georgia, with her husband and two spoiled Havanese dogs.

George Newbern has appeared in Father of the Bride, Father of the Bride II, Evening Star, Adventures in Babysitting, and many other films. On television, he has had roles on Scandal, Friends, Nip/Tuck, Hot in Cleveland, CSI, and more. He is also known for providing the voice of Superman in Justice League and for narrating audiobooks.

Carrington MacDuffie is a singer and recording artist, who first began reading audiobooks featuring poetry.  The recipient of multiple Earphones Awards and six Audi nominations, she has read novels by Jackie Collins, Sun Tzu's The Art of War, Anna Quindlen’s Still Life with Bread Crumbs, and Christopher Buckley’s Florence of Arabia.  She also co-narrated Transgressions: Death's Betrayal by Macmillan Audio.  MacDuffe has published her own audiobook, Many Things Invisible, featuring poetry integrated with music and sound.

Patrick Cullen, a native of Massachusetts, is a graduate of the Catholic University of America. He lives in Washington, DC, where he works in theater.

Malcolm Hillgartner has narrated over 175 audiobooks. He was named an AudioFile Best Voice of 2013. His work ranges from children's titles such as On the Blue Comet (AudioFile Best of 2011, Earphones), and Neal Stevenson's sci-fi epic REAMDE (Audible.com Best of 2011) to the biographies Kissinger (AudioFile Best of 2013, Earphones) and Cheever (AudioFile Best of 2009, Earphones). He is also an accomplished actor, writer, and musician. With his wife and partner, Jahnna Beecham, he has written over 130 books for teens and young readers, as well as the musicals Chaps! and The Best Christmas Pageant Ever Musical, which have been produced in the U.S. and Canada.

Susan Ericksen is a three-time Audie Award-winning narrator who has recorded over 500 books. The winner of multiple awards, including twenty-plus AudioFile Earphones Awards for both fiction and nonfiction, Susan is a classically trained actress who excels at multiple narrative styles and accents.

Patrick Lawlor is an accomplished audiobook narrator, stage actor, director, and combat choreographer. The recipient of an AudioFile Earphones Award, he was also a finalist for an Audie Award.

Eileen Stevens is a voice-over actress whose voice can be heard on cartoons, promos, programs for English-language learners, and audiobooks. An Earphones Award–winning narrator, she is also an audiobook director and producer.

Narrator for this audio book is Derek Perkins.

Tim Campbell is an experienced audiobook narrator and actor who has recorded over 160 audiobooks from almost every genre. Equally comfortable reading as an American or a Brit, he has a background in history and philosophy as well as a versatility with accents and dialects. A classically trained singer, he performs regularly with the Los Angeles Master Chorale. He currently resides in Los Angeles, California.

Hillary Huber is a multiple Audie Award finalist, an Earphones Award winner, and an AudioFile Best Voice. She has recorded over six hundred titles spanning many genres and holds a bachelor's degree in English literature. A voracious reader and listener, she was raised in Connecticut and Hawaii but now splits her time between California and New York.

Born in one of the unlikeliest of places-on the desk of the British High Commissioner in New Delhi, India-native British stage and film actor Ralph Lister lives happily in whatever reality he finds himself. His Audie-nominated audiobook work and best actor awards for both stage and film (2011 Grand Award and 2014 Eclipse Award, respectively) have led him into the delightfully strange worlds of the many characters he embodies in voice. Ralph has narrated more than one hundred audiobooks and directed over a dozen others, across all genres, both fiction and nonfiction. Now a U.S. citizen, Ralph shares his time between his homes in Michigan and Los Angeles, where he also continues his passion for on-camera acting. Recent film credits include roles in OZ: The Great and Powerful, Setup, Alleged, and Mickey Matson and the Pirate's Code, and his television credits include a role on the AMC crime drama Low Winter Sun.

Marguerite Gavin is a seasoned theater veteran, a five-time nominee for the prestigious Audie Award, and the winner of numerous AudioFile Earphones and Publishers Weekly awards. With over four hundred titles to her credit, her narration spans nearly every genre.

John Rubinstein made his debut as the title role in Bob Fosse’s Pippin. He is a skillful, AudioFile Earphones Award-winning narrator who has read works by Jonathan Kellerman, Orson Scott Card, Tom Clancy, and Gabriel Brownstein. Rubinstein is also a successful actor and has acted in the films Jekyll, Choose Conner, The Truth About Layla, and 21 Grams.  His television credits include The Young and the Restless, Greek, Desperate Housewives, Day Break, Criminal Minds, Cold Case, CSI and Law & Order.

Ann Richardson was raised in the Midwest, where she was active in drama and singing. Her varied work experience has lent itself well to narration, as she's no stranger to the terminology used in wildlife management, veterinary medicine, pharmacy, education, and the automotive industry. A devoted volunteer for Learning Ally (formerly Recording For the Blind and Dyslexic), she has narrated numerous audiobooks in a wide variety of genres.

Scott Brick first began narrating audiobooks in 2000, and after recording almost 400 titles in five years, AudioFile magazine named Brick a Golden Voice and “one of the fastest-rising stars in the audiobook galaxy.” He has read a number of titles in Frank Herbert’s bestselling Dune series, and he won the 2003 Science Fiction Audie Award for Dune: The Butlerian Jihad. Brick has narrated for many popular authors, including Michael Pollan, Joseph Finder, Tom Clancy, and Ayn Rand. He has also won over 40 AudioFile Earphones Awards and the AudioFile award for Best Voice in Mystery and Suspense 2011. In 2007, Brick was named Publishers Weekly’s Narrator of the Year.

 Brick has performed on film, television and radio. He appeared on stage throughout the United States in productions of Cyrano, Hamlet, Macbeth and other plays. In addition to his acting work, Brick choreographs fight sequences, and was a combatant in films including Romeo and Juliet, The Fantasticks and Robin Hood: Men in Tights. He has also been hired by Morgan Freeman to write the screenplay adaptation of Arthur C. Clarke’s Rendezvous with Rama.

British narrator John Lee has read audiobooks in almost every conceivable genre, from Charles Dickens to Patrick O'Brian, and from the very real life of Napoleon to the entirely imagined lives of sorcerers and swashbucklers. He has won numerous Audie Awards and AudioFile Earphones Awards, and he was named a Golden Voice by AudioFile in 2009. Lee is also an accomplished stage actor and wrote and coproduced the feature films Breathing Hard and Forfeit.

Mirron Willis

Recently appeared as Banquo (MacBeth) and Antonio (The Merchant of Venice) with the Houston Shakespeare Festival 2015 Season. And last season as King Henry (Henry IV, Part I) and the Duke in The Two Gentlemen of Verona.

In three seasons at the Ensemble Theatre (Houston, TX), Mirron appeared as JP in What I Learned in Paris, Malcolm X in The Meeting. Henry in Race, and as Countee Cullen in Knock Me A Kiss (2013 Giorgee Award for Best Leading Actor). Other roles include, Twelfth Night, Much Ado About Nothing, Henry VI Parts 2 & 3, and A Raisin in the Sun with the world-renowned Oregon Shakespeare Festival

Mirron has narrated close to 150 audio books across various literary genres and has won several Earphone Awards for Excellence and is an Audie Award finalist and winner. Notable works include The Smokey Dalton Series by Kris Nelscott; My Song: A Memoir by Harry Belafonte; The Long Fall (Booklist, Best of 2009) and others by Walter Mosley; Uncle Toms Cabin, Elijah of Buxton, The Translator; and the biography of William Wells Brown: An African American Life. Mr. Willis also performs as guest narrator with the Houston Symphony.

Film and TV guest appearances include, Criminal Minds, Private Practice, The Exes, Monk, 24, Seinfeld, Cheers, The Parkers, Living Single, E.R., Star Trek: TNG and Voyager, Independence Day, among others. Mirron resides and records audiobooks on his family’s historic ranch in East Texas.

Nancy Wu is an award-winning narrator who has worked in animation, television, theater, and film. Having lived and recorded all over the world, she is known for her vivid action/fantasy characters, accents, and bringing literature and nonfiction equally to life. A graduate of Amherst College with her master's degree in human rights, she is an avid Ashtanga yoga practitioner and rock climber. Born and raised in West Virginia, she currently resides in Boulder, Colorado.

Lloyd James has been narrating since 1996 and has recorded over six hundred books. He is an AudioFile Earphones Award winner and has been a finalist for the prestigious Audie Award. His critically acclaimed performances include Elvis in the Morning by William F. Buckley Jr. and Searching for Bobby Fischer by Fred Waitzkin.

Pam Ward has had many incarnations, including private detective, classical musician, television talk-show host, and actress, having performed in dinner theater, summer stock, and Off-Broadway, as well as in commercials, radio, and film. But she found her true calling reading books for the blind and physically handicapped for the Library of Congress Talking Books program, for which she received the prestigious Alexander Scourby Award from the American Foundation for the Blind. An AudioFile Earphones Award winner, her many audiobooks include Dancing in the Streets by Barbara Ehrenreich, Breaking Free by Lauraine Snelling, The Second Journey by Joan Anderson, and Lion in the White House by Aida D. Donald. She now records from her studio amidst the beauty of the Southern Oregon mountains.

Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, Joe Hempel, a total eighties' kid, had a fascination with an eclectic array of shows that would later shape his performances in the audiobook world-shows like Alf, Night Court, Tales from the Crypt, and WWF Superstars. For over a decade Joe honed his acting skills as a referee in professional wrestling and inspired people as a NASM certified personal trainer and endurance coach. Combined with his animated personality and a love for reading, becoming an audiobook narrator was a natural step. Best known for his captivating, rich narrations and uncanny ability for pulling listeners into an immersive experience, Joe has entertained listeners with over 100 audiobooks ranging from horror and mystery to science fiction, romance, and personal development. Joe still lives in Cincinnati with his son Zach, and enjoys running marathons and bringing words on a page to life. Joe is also the winner of the 2018 ABR Listeners Choice Award for Horror.

Kathleen Early, a five-time winner of the Earphones Award for audiobook narration, is also a television, film, and stage actress. She studied at the University of Oklahoma, the Oxford School of Drama, and the Actors Theatre of Louisville before moving to New York City, where she understudied on Broadway and toured nationally. Her television credits include recurring roles on Miami Medical and Grey’s Anatomy.

Paul Heitsch has been narrating audiobooks since 2011, after having worked as a pianist, composer, recording engineer, producer, and sound designer for many years. His work is often cited for the authenticity he brings to the narrative and characters he portrays, as well as his versatility, and clear, smooth delivery. He has been a presenter at several webinars and seminars for the Audiobook Publishing Association and SAG-AFTRA.

Coming from a long line of theater folk, Andrew Eiden has been acting since the age of four, working at regional theaters from the Glendale Center Theatre to the Pasadena Playhouse. At the age of eleven Andrew was scouted by his first agent after winning first place in a local drama festival and has since starred in dozens of national commercials and guest spotted on television shows for FOX, NBC, ABC, CBS, and Nickelodeon. He has been a series regular on three different shows: Discovery Channel's Outward Bound, Disney Channel's Movie Surfers, and ABC's Complete Savages.

Suzanne Toren has over 30 years of experience in recording.  She won the American Foundation for the Blind's Scourby Award for Narrator of the Year in 1988, and AudioFile magazine named her the 2009 Best Voice in Nonfiction & Culture.  She is also the recipient of multiple Earphones Awards. Her many credits include works by Jane Smiley, Margaret Weis, Jerry Spinelli, Barbara Kingsolver, and Cynthia Rylant. AudioFile also raves, “Toren brings a distinguishing warmth and power to her narrations. Her talents extend to both fiction and nonfiction, and in her recording career of 30-plus years she has given listeners heart-wrenching memoirs, lively history, engaging light fiction, and involving mysteries.” Toren also performs on and off-Broadway and in regional theatres.

John McLain is an AudioFile Earphones Award-winning narrator who has recorded over 140 audiobook titles, from thrillers to nonfiction, westerns to mysteries, and more. John was nominated for an Audie Award in 2012 for his narration of the historical fiction novel The Resurrection of Nat Turner, Part 1: The Witnesses by Sharon Ewell Foster. An accomplished actor and musician, he has also appeared on the musical theater stage in Dallas and Phoenix.

Mark Bramhall has performed off-Broadway, at venues nationwide, and extensively in film and television. He holds numerous honors for his narrations and has repeatedly been featured among AudioFile Magazine’s best readers of the year.

Andi Arndt arrived at her career in audiobook narration after hosting public radio programs and teaching acting and voice/speech at James Madison University. A classically trained actress with an ear for languages and dialects, Andi has studied Spanish, Dutch, Italian, French, and Chinese (Mandarin). AudioFile magazine says that "her energy and charm will draw listeners into [the] story and keep them thoroughly engaged during the whole emotional journey."

Stefan Rudnicki is an award winning audiobook narrator, director and producer. He was born in Poland and now resides in Studio City, California. He has narrated more than three hundred audiobooks and has participated in over a thousand as a writer, producer, or director. He is a recipient of multiple Audie Awards and AudioFile Earphones Awards as well as a Grammy Award, a Bram Stoker Award, and a Ray Bradbury Award. He received AudioFile’s award for 2008 Best Voice in Science Fiction and Fantasy. Along with a cast of other narrators, Rudnicki has read a number of Orson Scott Card's best-selling science fiction novels. He worked extensively with many other science fiction authors, including David Weber and Ben Bova. In reviewing the twentieth anniversary edition audiobook of Card’s Ender's Game, Publishers Weekly stated, "Rudnicki, with his lulling, sonorous voice, does a fine job articulating Ender's inner struggle between the kind, peaceful boy he wants to be and the savage, violent actions he is frequently forced to take." Rudnicki is also a stage actor and director.

Bernadette Dunne has been honored to narrate the work of some of the finest fiction and nonfiction writers of our time, including Margaret Atwood, Joyce Carol Oates, and Sandra Day O'Connor. The winner of more than a dozen Earphones Awards and a three-time Audie Award nominee, she has voiced countless bestsellers, including Memoirs of a Geisha, The Devil Wears Prada, and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. She studied at The Royal National Theater and lives in New York.

Michael Kramer has narrated over 100 audiobooks for many bestselling authors. He read all of Robert Jordan’s epic Wheel of Time fantasy-adventure series as well as Brandon Sanderson’s The Stormlight Archive series. He received AudioFile magazine's Earphones Award for the Kent Family series by John Jakes and for Alan Fulsom's The Day After Tomorrow. Known for his “spot-on character portraits and accents, and his resonant, well-tempered voice” (AudioFile), his work includes recording books for the Library of Congress’s Talking Books program for the blind and physically handicapped.

Kramer also works as an actor in the Washington, D.C. area, where he lives with his wife, Jennifer Mendenhall (a.k.a. Kate Reading), and their two children. He has appeared as Lord Rivers in Richard III at The Shakespeare Theatre, Howie/Merlin in The Kennedy Center’s production of The Light of Excalibur, Sam Riggs and Frederick Savage in Woody Allen’s Central Park West/Riverside Drive, and Dr. Qari Shah in Tony Kushner’s Homebody/Kabul at Theatre J.

Suzie Althens records from her professional studio in Alaska, near the beautiful Matanuska Glacier. She narrates regularly for major publishers and specializes in audiobooks and e-learning. Suzie is enthusiastic about narrating nonfiction as it provides opportunities to share amazing memoirs, medical discoveries, and inspiration, but she also enjoys mysteries and women's fiction. Suzie narrates children's encyclopedias and donates time to narrate children's fiction for Learning Ally, a nonprofit organization, when she has the opening to woo the reluctant young reader.

David de Vries can be seen in a number of feature films, including The Founder, The Accountant, Captain America: Civil War, and Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk. On television, his credits include House of Cards, Nashville, Halt and Catch Fire, the National Geographic film Killing Reagan, and The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks for HBO. As a veteran stage actor, David appeared as Lumiere in Disney's Beauty and the Beast on Broadway, as Dr. Dillamond in the Los Angeles and Chicago companies of Wicked, and in hundreds of shows in regional theaters throughout the country. He is an Audie and Odyssey Award-winning narrator for his performance in Pam Munoz Ryan's Echo and has voiced over 100 titles in every genre, including his Audie Award-nominated performance of the 2011 Caldecott winner A Sick Day for Amos McGee.

Natalie Ross has narrated and directed over 150 audio titles. Her reading of The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate won the 'Best Children's' title at the 2011 APA Audie Awards, as well as an Audiofile Magazine Earphones Award. Her work has been featured in many 'Best of the Year' lists, and she was named 'Favorite Female Narrator' and 'Favorite Dual Narrators' (with Phil Gigante) in 2011 and 2012. In addition to audiobooks, Natalie is an accomplished playwright and theatre actress.