yarn (yärn)
n.
1. A continuous strand of twisted threads of natural or synthetic material, such as wool or nylon, used in weaving or knitting.
2. A long, often elaborate narrative of real or fictitious adventures; an entertaining tale.
- The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2003.
My background is in the theater. Which explains, to some extent, why I came to the audio business with a desire to tell stories, or at least to help people tell stories. Back in the '90s, as a part of New York's downtown theater scene, it may not have been fashionable to prefer straightforward narratives over nonlinear abstraction, but that's what drew me to theater in the first place: great stories that pulled you in and wouldn't let go. That were that dirtiest of words on the indie scene: entertaining.
Enter Bob Edwards. Kurt Andersen. Liane Hansen. Scott Simon. Jay Allison. Daniel Zwerdling. Wade Goodwin. The Kitchen Sisters. Jad Abumrad. Brooke Gladstone. And of course Ira Glass. Reporters, hosts, and storytellers that put the focus on others, that shone the spotlight on the world around them, not their navels. They were what drove me, in the spring of 2005, to blow my tax refund on audio equipment, to teach myself to use Audacity and to spend three weeks of a summertime writer's conference locked in a stifling hot room, editing my brains out.
Everyone has a story. Yarn features a few of them -- recorded, mixed, and edited to sound their very best. To make an impression, and -- if I've done my job -- entertain.
Eric Winick
Eric Winick hails from Marblehead, Massachusetts, birthplace of the American Navy. "How Are You Who You Are?" (co-produced with Jay Allison) appeared on Transom in June 2008; a 12-minute version (with additional production by Larry Massett) appeared on Hearing Voices and aired on NPR's "All Things Considered" in November 2008. His piece "Blue Collar Babysitter" aired nationally on APM's "The Story" in April 2011. In addition, his pieces have been broadcast in Anchorage, Austin, Birmingham, Champaign-Urbana, Chicago, Minneapolis, New England, Santa Monica, and Seattle. His pieces "Seating Mr. Pacino" and "The Bakers of Butter Lane" and his co-production (with Wayne Liebman) of "Meal Ticket" were PRX News Station Picks of the Month. Eric serves by day as Director of Marketing at Playwrights Horizons, an off-Broadway theater, for whom he has created podcasts with Craig Lucas, Theresa Rebeck, Anne Bogart, Annie Baker, Bruce Norris, Adam Bock, Adam Rapp, and others. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife and son.
Photo by Jay Allison.
Yarn AudioWorks logo by Bradford Louryk.
