Former Triangle Writer Allison Light ’18 Finds a Career in Audiobooks

In April 2019, audiobook producer Allison Light ’18 worked late hours in a three-day “war-room” set up by Simon & Schuster to rapidly craft an audiobook version of The Mueller Report, the U.S. Department of Justice’s investigation into accusations of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, which had just been released. “We were fielding pronunciation queries and were asking, how do you narrate this sort of legal jargon?” Light says. “It was a really exciting project.”

Light never expected to find a career in audiobooks. At Princeton, she majored in Spanish and Portuguese language and cultures and was heavily involved in comedy and musical theater on campus, writing for Triangle Club, performing with the Quipfire! improv troupe, and hosting the All-Nighter student talk show. “I always loved the theater world and performance world,” and she wanted to build her career in those spaces, Light says.

The summer before her senior year, Light took an internship through the Princeton Internship in Civic Service (PICS) program at the Miami-based public radio station WLRN, where she received a crash-course in audio journalism. “They would put a microphone in our hand and send us out into the streets of Miami to report on whatever story of the day,” she says. By editing her own stories, Light learned the tools and skills of the audio trade and developed a passion for the medium.

Light followed that experience with two post-graduation internships, one at The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and the other at the WNYC political podcast The United States of Anxiety. A colleague at WNYC recommended Light look into the growing audiobook field, and she started working for Simon & Schuster’s audiobook team in 2019.

Audiobooks are among the fastest growing sectors of the publishing industry. According to a 2024 report by the Audio Publishers Association, revenue from audiobook sales increased 9% to $2 billion in 2023.

For Light, the popularity of audiobooks can be attributed to the way the medium allows listeners to integrate storytelling into different parts of their day. “I’m someone who also loves to sit down and read a physical book, and I think that absolutely has value. But for a lot of people, audiobooks don’t replace that,” Light says. “It just allows you to continue your book while you’re commuting into work, washing the dishes, or going on a run.”

In April, Light’s work was honored when New Nigeria County, which she produced, was featured as a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. The Simon & Schuster Audio Original, created exclusively in audio format, follows the hijinks that ensue when a white family moves into an affluent Black community. As part of the celebration, Light attended the Los Angeles award ceremony and participated in a panel discussion during the associated L.A. Times Festival of Books held at the University of Southern California. “It was an honor to get to represent the audiobook world to the wider literary world,” Light says. “It was a nice change of pace to represent audiobooks to people who love books but maybe haven’t tried this way of experiencing them yet.”

Light has continued to integrate her interests by writing a true crime-parody musical podcast, The Unsolved and Forgotten Crimes of Sullivan County (and Surrounding Municipalities); now she’s looking for grants to produce it and make her vision a reality. “I’m trying to combine the things that I know and the things that I love,” Light says. “I’m combining what I know about audio, my bread and butter, with my love of musical theater.”