Audiobook narrator and Santa Barbara–based actress Claudia Dunn has lent her talents as part of the Ukraine Audiobook Relief Project, which was launched this week to support artists in Ukraine whose lives are threatened because of war.
Dunn, who was part of a Santa Barbara Writers Conference panel this week on Podcasts and Audiobooks, shared, “I and a group of narrators, colleagues, through our Professional Audiobook Narrators Association (PANA) have been collaborating on this project for over two years. We are donating our work in support of and all proceeds go to the artists and writers of Ukraine impacted by the ongoing war.”
The work they created is called A Word Is Not a Sparrow and is an audiobook anthology to raise money in support for artists living through war. It is available in CD as well as digital download formats. Volunteer professional narrators like Dunn, writers, and musicians have donated their creative work, and all profits generated through the sale of this audiobook will be donated to the Artists at Risk Connection in Ukraine through PEN America, a nonprofit organization that endeavors to safeguard the right to artistic freedom of expression and ensure that artists and cultural professionals everywhere can live and work without fear.
The title comes from the folk wisdom of Ukraine, which has an expression: “A word is not a sparrow … once it flies out, you won’t catch it.” A Word Is Not a Sparrow is described as “a diverse anthology of stories set amid Russian repression through the centuries; personal narrator testimony about the impact in America of immigrant grandparents from Ukraine and elsewhere; powerful fables and allegories that deliver universal messages about displacement, migration, and human connection; and classic Cossack folk tales that are a touchstone of Ukrainian culture.”
“We’re grateful and excited to share at long last that its global release has arrived on Audible and all other platforms!” said Dunn. See this link and this link for more information.
