Invited guest speakers

The Era of Close Listening

Over the past two decades, sound has moved from the margins of literary scholarship toward the centre of debates about what literature is and how we experience it. This presentation reflects on the emergence of literary sound studies from the perspective of a scholar who began working on audiobooks when listening was still widely regarded as an inferior or even illegitimate form of reading. It considers how far the sonic turn has challenged print-centric models of literary culture before turning to our rapidly changing practices of listening as podcasts, streaming platforms, and artificial intelligence transform the ways literary voices are heard.

Prof. Matthew Rubery is professor of Modern Literature at Queen Mary University London. 

Beyond words: towards an acting methodology for audio literature

Audiobooks are not simply books read aloud — they constitute a distinct medium with its own performance demands, requiring a form of acting for which no pedagogical framework yet exists.  This talk argues that voice pedagogy developed within theatre contexts — particularly the methodology pioneered by Cicely Berry at the Royal Shakespeare Company — offers the framework for understanding and training the specific acting skills that audio literature demands. Yet these methods, developed for the stage, must be adjusted for the microphone. The central challenge: when a text is voiced aloud, its rhythm, texture, and sonority create dimensions of meaning that exist only in sound. An actor working in audio literature must learn to access, explore, and embody these sonic dimensions — but within the constraint of physical stillness. How does an actor maintain the aliveness, the muscularity, the explored vitality of language while standing motionless before a microphone? 

Through brief practical exercises (optional for participants — no acting experience needed), we will offer a direct experience of what we mean by sonic meaning: that there is content in the sound itself — dimensions of significance that exist only when language is voiced.  Understanding this sonic dimension is foundational to understanding what any actor must do to work in this new medium: bring full vocal, linguistic, and emotional presence within stillness before the microphone. 

This is the acting of audio literature. It is neither stage acting nor voiceover work — it is a distinct performance discipline that has yet to be formally recognized or taught. Understanding it, and equipping audiobook directors and narrators with pedagogical methods to develop it, is essential to the artistic future of the medium. 

Aina Calpe Serrats holds an MA in Voice Studies with Distinction from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London, where she trained in the pedagogical traditions of voice and text work pioneered by Cicely Berry at the Royal Shakespeare Company. She is a multilingual voice professional working as a voiceover artist, voice director, and audiobook producer.