Narrators

In June 2023, Kevin R. Free was inducted as a Golden Voice, AudioFile's lifetime achievement honor for audiobook narrators.

What’s your favorite thing about narrating audiobooks?

I have to say, right now, my favorite thing about narrating audiobooks is that I get to read! I used to say that I was so busy prepping books to record that I never read for pleasure, but I misspoke all that time. Prepping the books is reading them, analyzing them, really getting to know them before I narrate them. And I have read so many wonderful books for work that I am grateful just to be reading. So my work really is a pleasure!

Where do you find inspiration for accents or other aspects of your performance?

I find myself practicing interesting voices after I hear them! I also like to google image search character descriptions in books to see what faces come up. I just create voices based on what I see in google images or in my imagination.

Tell us about a memorable character you’ve given voice to. And please name a couple of your favorite performances.

This is a difficult question! I really enjoyed creating a first-person narrative for Noa, the main character in A COMPLICATED LOVE STORY SET IN SPACE by Shaun David Hutchinson. He is a scared teenager with a bit of a sardonic edge. I also find myself thinking about THE COST OF KNOWING by Brittney Morris and THE BOOK OF FATAL ERRORS by Dashka Slater a lot, and how grateful I was to record those titles. The reads I have done of Brandon Taylor, F.T. Lukens, and Hilton Als change my life every time. And, of course, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Martha Wells’s Murderbot Diaries. Murderbot is the gift that keeps on giving!

What is the funniest moment you’ve encountered in narrating audiobooks?

It’s always funny when I receive a file of the mistakes I made while recording! I always think, “If I was reading the book when I recorded it, how is it that I didn’t notice that I read “cat” instead of “that”? One time, I recorded a really fun book called PASTOR NEEDS A BOO by Michele Andrea Bowen. When my director, Jenny Selig (shout out to all the audiobook directors I have worked with!), played back some of the crazy voices I was doing for the book, I couldn’t stop laughing—I was afraid we’d get in trouble because the voices were so fun!