If you have any familiarity with audiobooks, then undoubtedly you’ve heard the name Julia Whelan. This beloved narrator is the distinguished voice behind some of the top novels in the market today. From your favorite Emily Henry reads, to The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Whelan has performed in over 600 audiobooks and long-form journalistic narration.

Aptly dubbed “the Adele of audiobooks,” her performances have become the gold standard for listeners and authors alike. Perhaps the most decorated narrator of all time, Whelan has not only amassed accolades along with fans, she’s setting the stage to preserve the human voice in an age where AI threatens to replace more than a few art forms.

We were fortunate enough to catch up with this A-list narrator, author and entrepreneur during Audiobook Appreciation Month to get her take on the current industry climate and her most memorable project.

Bestselling Audibooks and Trailblazing Achievements

Recently, Whelan’s artistic contributions have been recognized across a broad spectrum. She received the first-ever Gracie Award for Best Fiction Narrator, presented by the Alliance for Women In Media Foundation. Adding to her collection of EmHen narrations, the latest release—Great Big Beautiful Life—hit #1 on the New York Times Audio Fiction bestseller list. Her audio performance of The Women by Kristin Hannah is the number one, most requested audiobook in the Libby app. She also voiced the latest release from TJR, Atmosphere.

Her performances span the genre spectrums from speculative and fantastical works like Nikki Erlick’s bestseller The Measure and V.E. Schwab’s The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue to the contemporary tones of Jojo Moyes, thrillers by the likes of Wendy Walker and Laura Dave and of course, a treasure trove of romance.

Having voiced some of the biggest books in recent years, we couldn’t resist asking her about what her most memorable narration experience was.

She Reads: What is a project you worked on that particularly stands out to you? Either for the challenge or the lasting impact of the story itself?

Julia Whelan: I’ve been fortunate that there are many, but perhaps the most recent and lasting is Cormac McCarthy’s final book, Stella Maris. Not only was the character, Alicia (who also appears in The Passenger), the most complicated person I’ve ever had to figure out how to play, but because the book was written as transcripts of psychiatric sessions between Alicia and a therapist (played by Edoardo Ballerini), it was recorded live in studio and therefore felt like we were doing a play.

It’s an incredibly moving piece about a math genius reckoning with the imminent death of her brother—whom she also happens to be in love with—and her own mortality at the same time. It is at once an intricate character piece and a philosophical treatise on the math behind the functioning of the universe… and whether science can explain the vagaries of the human heart. A rare project where the text is as memorable as the recording/performance process.

Audiobook Narrator, Author and Actor

Though perhaps best known for her astounding audiobook career, Whelan’s work as an author has garnered head-turning praise and accomplishments as well. My Oxford Year was an international bestseller, award-winner and a soon-to-be-released Netflix film. (We’ll be sharing more on that in August when it hits the streaming service.) Additionally, her novel Thank You for Listening was met with critical acclaim and Casanova LLC was Audie nominated.

Her career stretches back to a child acting role on ABC’s Once and Again as well as guest star roles over the years on shows like NCIS and Castle.

My Oxford Year by Julia Whelan

Ella’s dream has always been to attend Oxford, and at 24, she’s finally getting that chance. Along with another opportunity. She will be working on a presidential campaign remotely during her year in England, then return home to her perfect career. Sounds ideal until she meets Jamie, a smart-mouthed local who ruins her first day then turns out to be teaching her English literature course. Unexpectedly, she begins to fall in love with him, but he has a big secret and a major issue to cope with. Ella must decide if she’ll be there for Jamie or return to the life she has planned.

Buy the book now: Bookshop.org | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

AI Audiobooks and Preserving Human Narration

Anyone in the reading, writing or publishing space is acutely aware of the encroaching presence of artificial intelligence. From concerns about AI-produced books and copyright infringement to the replacement of graphic designers in cover design, the industry has already seen a few whispers of what could come next. To make matters more intense, Audible recently announced that they will be expanding their catalogue using AI narration to bring more books to the audio market. On the one hand, this could provide an opportunity for books to be brought to market, translated and disseminated more widely. But what does this mean for the human artists narrating books? What does it mean for readers? We asked Julia her thoughts on the matter.

SR: As a seasoned narrator, what are your thoughts on AI’s growing presence in the audiobook industry, particularly when it comes to synthetic narration?

JW: Without minimizing the massive impact it will continue to have on the industry and the people within it, which is obviously financially devastating… it has actually made me more hopeful about the future of human storytelling than I’ve ever been. I know that sounds mad, but for my entire career, the craft of audiobook narration has been largely written off as simply an alternative way of consuming the book. But that’s not how fans perceive it. They follow narrators, they feel intimately connected to performances, they enjoy a relationship to the real humans who interpret the written word for them. AI, very simply, can’t do that. It can replicate the technical work, but it can’t replace the human connection.

The very fact that it exists has created a point of comparison for the first time, which seems to be helping people understand what it is, exactly, that we do. What defines human beingness. I liken AI narration to a plastic plant: it’s mass-produced, low maintenance, and ever perfect; but people still buy living plants. Why? Because we crave the connection to another life form. We watch it grow, we worry about it, we nourish it, we live with it. I can, sadly, see a future where the majority of audiobooks are AI generated, but that will only serve to make the human ones more relevant.

Slowly, every one of us is becoming aware of the frailty of our own jobs, creative work and place in the economy. But as a community who bands together, many of us in the bookish world are wondering what we can do to keep as many jobs in the hands of humans. How can we influence corporations to prioritize people over profits?

SR: With audiobooks continuing to soar in popularity, what is the irreplaceable value human narrators bring to the listening experience? How can readers and narrators help to preserve that?

JW: Right now, the irreplaceable human value in audiobook narration is not our voice; it’s our brain. The job is a translation process, an interpretation, an adaptation: how do I thoughtfully and intentionally construct a performance that gives the listener the experience of the author’s intention? How does my voice bring the author’s voice to life? What you’re hearing is, yes, vocal training, but it’s also a 30-year acting career, an overpriced English degree, and two decades of professional writing experience. That said, I think we must accept the premise that eventually you will not be able to tell the difference between human narration and synthetic voice. But to be blunt: I don’t care. So what if you can’t tell the difference? So long as you know the difference, then where do you choose to put your support? Which are you choosing to buy?

In an effort to double down on her belief in the preservation of human narration, she founded her own company to perpetuate the craft and be the balance on the other side of the scale.

JW: When I started Audiobrary (my own audio publishing company), I knew that betting the farm on human-only narration, when every other company seems to be running in the opposite direction, would make us a niche endeavor. But that’s the point! It’s about preserving the artform. It’s about being a safe harbor for the people who still care about people. It’s about preserving the relevance of relationship over replication and replacement. It’s about offering something that’s certified real in a world where we’re continually questioning our reality. It’s why we’re changing compensation models, too, profit-sharing with authors and giving narrators royalties (which they egregiously don’t receive in traditional publishing now) because if corporations are able to tear down existing systems for the sake of AI profits, then why can’t we rebuild systems that will better serve the humans who remain? Listeners are going to be the final arbiters: will they pay humans appropriately for human creativity, or will they accept the knockoffs because they’re cheap?

That final message is an empowering one. We get to be the ones who choose. The readers get to decide whether we’ll stand up for human art, or capitulate to convenience. This is a tremendous responsibility and opportunity. One that requires we be curious and informed. If you’ve adored an audiobook narrator, if a listening experience has moved you, if you hope to see human artists thrive, this is your chance to support that movement!