Award
The Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album has been awarded since 1959. The award has had several minor name changes:
In 1959 the award was known as Best Performance, Documentary or Spoken Word
From 1960 to 1961 it was awarded as Best Performance – Documentary or Spoken Word (other than comedy)
From 1962 to 1963 it was awarded as Best Documentary or Spoken Word Recording (other than comedy)
From 1964 to 1965 it was awarded as Best Documentary, Spoken Word or Drama Recording (other than comedy)
In 1966 it was awarded as Best Spoken Word or Drama Recording
From 1967 to 1968 it was awarded as Best Spoken Word, Documentary or Drama Recording
From 1969 to 1979 it was awarded as Best Spoken Word Recording
From 1980 to 1983 it returned to the title of Best Spoken Word, Documentary or Drama Recording
From 1984 to 1991 it was awarded as Best Spoken Word or Non-Musical Recording
From 1992 to 1997 it was awarded as Best Spoken Word or Non-Musical Album
From 1998 to 2022 it was awarded as Best Spoken Word Album
From 2023 it will be awarded as Best Audio Book, Narration & Storytelling Recording . Poetry reading now has its own Grammy category, Best Spoken Word Poetry Album .
This category now also includes audio books and story telling. Up to and including 2022, it also included poetry reading.
Years reflect the year in which the Grammy Awards were handed out, for a recording released in the previous year.
Recipients
Stan Freberg was the first recipient of the award in 1959.
Carl Sandburg received the award in 1960.
Leonard Bernstein received the award in 1962.
Charles Laughton received the award in 1963.
Edward R. Murrow received the award in 1967.
Martin Luther King Jr. won the award posthumously in 1971 for Why I Oppose the War in Vietnam .
Richard Harris won the award in 1974.
Peter Cook & Dudley Moore won the award in 1975.
James Whitmore won the award in 1976.
Director Orson Welles received the award twice, in 1977 and 1979.
James Earl Jones received the award in 1977.
Sir John Gielgud received the award in 1980.
William Warfield received the award in 1984.
Actor Ben Kingsley won for The Words of Gandhi in 1985.
Garrison Keillor won the award in 1988.
1990 award winner, comedian Gilda Radner .
Comedian George Burns won the award in 1991.
Documentarian Ken Burns won in 1992.
Three-time winner, American poet Maya Angelou .
Hillary Clinton won the award in 1997.
LeVar Burton won the award in 2000.
Actor and director Sidney Poitier won the award for his autobiography The Measure of a Man in 2001.
Former U.S. President Bill Clinton won in 2005.
Two-time winner, former U.S. President Barack Obama .
Three-time winner, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter .
Jon Stewart won the award in 2005
2012 award winner, Betty White .
Comedian Stephen Colbert won in 2014.
Comedienne Joan Rivers won in 2015.
Comedienne Carol Burnett won in 2016
Carrie Fisher won the award posthumously in 2018.
Former U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama won in 2020.
Viola Davis won the award in 2023 achieving the EGOT
1950s
1960s
Year[I]
Performing Artist
Work
1960
Carl Sandburg
A Lincoln Portrait
John Gielgud
Ages of Man
Hal Holbrook
Mark Twain Tonight
Basil Rathbone
Basil Rathbone Reads Sherlock Holmes
Tony Schwartz
New York Taxi Driver
1961
Robert Bialek (producer)
FDR Speaks
Henry Fonda
Voices of the Twentieth Century
John Gielgud
Ages of Man, Vol. 2 (One Man in His Time)
Archibald MacLeish
J.B.
1962
Leonard Bernstein
Humor in Music
Hal Holbrook
More of Hal Holbrook in Mark Twain Tonight!
Dorothy Parker
The World of Dorothy Parker
Carl Sandburg , Harlow Shapley , Jawaharlal Nehru & Jacques Lipchitz
Wisdom , Vol. 1
Alexander Scourby
The Coming of Christ
1963
Charles Laughton
The Story-Teller ... A Session with Charles Laughton
Carl Sandburg
Carl Sandburg Reading His Poetry
Claude Rains & Glenn Gould
Enoch Arden
Laurence Harvey
This Is My Beloved
Stan Kenton
Mama Sang a Song
1964
Melinda Dillon , George Grizzard , Uta Hagen & Arthur Hill
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Dane Clark , Anne Jackson , Lotte Lenya & Viveca Lindfors
Brecht on Brecht
Martin Luther King Jr. with Joan Baez , Marian Anderson , Odetta , Rabbi Joachim Prinz & Bob Dylan
We Shall Overcome (The March on Washington, August 28, 1963)
Goddard Lieberson , Pete Seeger , & others
The Badmen
Norman Weiser & David Teig
John F. Kennedy – The Presidential Years
1965
That Was the Week That Was Cast
BBC Tribute to John F. Kennedy
Richard Burton , Hume Cronyn , John Gielgud , Alfred Drake , George Voskovec , Eileen Herlie , William Redfield & George Ross
Hamlet
Richard Burton & Peter O'Toole
Dialogue Highlights from Becket
Alec Guinness & Kate Reid
Dylan
John F. Kennedy , David Brinkley & Adlai Stevenson
The Kennedy Wit
1966
Goddard Lieberson , producer
John F. Kennedy: As We Remember Him
Alec Guinness
A Personal Choice
Chet Huntley & David Brinkley
A Time to Keep: '64
National Theatre of Great Britain
Much Ado About Nothing
Adlai Stevenson
The Voice of the Uncommon Man
Margaret Webster
The Brontes
1967
Edward R. Murrow
A Reporter Remembers, Vol. I – The War Years
Lee J. Cobb & Mildred Dunnock
Death of a Salesman
Johnny Sea
Day for Decision
Buddy Starcher
History Repeats Itself
1968
Everett Dirksen
Gallant Men
James Dickey
Poems of James Dickey
Hal Holbrook
Mark Twain Tonight, Vol. 3
Patrick Magee & Cyril Cusack
The Balcony
Rod McKuen
The Earth
Paul Scofield , Wendy Hiller & Robert Shaw
A Man For All Seasons
Victor Lundberg
An Open Letter to My Teenage Son
1969
Rod McKuen
Lonesome Cities
Martin Luther King Jr.
I Have a Dream
Paul Scofield
Murder in the Cathedral
Martin Starkie
The Canterbury Pilgrims
1970s
Year[I]
Performing Artist
Work
1970
Art Linkletter & Diane Linkletter
We Love You, Call Collect
Walter Cronkite
Man on the Moon
James Earl Jones
The Great White Hope
1971
Martin Luther King Jr.
Why I Oppose the War in Vietnam
Ambrose, Dryden , Hecht , Molloy, Carawan , La Farge & Seeger
Poems and Ballads from 100-Plus American Poets
Apollo 8 , 11 & 12 Astronauts, John F. Kennedy & Richard Nixon
In the Beginning
Bill Cosby
Grover Henson Feels Forgotten
Everett Dirksen
Everett Dirksen's America
1972
Les Crane
Desiderata
Richard Chamberlain
Hamlet (a Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation)
Walter Cronkite
I Can Hear It Now/The Sixties
Stacy Keach , Robert Ryan & Geraldine Fitzgerald
Long Day's Journey Into Night
James Whitmore
Will Rogers' USA
1973
The Original Broadway Cast
Lenny
Angela Davis
Angela Davis Speaks
Rod McKuen
The Word
Yevgeny Yevtushenko
Yevtushenko
1974
Richard Harris
Jonathan Livingston Seagull
Billie Holiday
Songs and Conversations
Vincent Price
Witches, Ghosts and Goblins
Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Slaughterhouse Five
John Wayne
America, Why I Love Her
1975
Peter Cook & Dudley Moore
Good Evening
Sam Ervin
Senator Sam at Home
Rod McKuen
Autumn
Eric Sevareid
An Ear to the Sounds of Our History
1976
James Whitmore
Give 'em Hell, Harry!
Alistair Cooke
Talk About America
Richard Harris
The Prophet
Claudia McNeil
The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman
Maureen Stapleton
To Kill a Mockingbird
Orson Welles
Immortal Sherlock Holmes (Mercury Theatre on the Air )
1977
Henry Fonda , Helen Hayes , James Earl Jones & Orson Welles
Great American Documents
Ray Bradbury
Fahrenheit 451
Charlton Heston
The Old Man and the Sea
James Mason
A Tale of Two Cities
William Shatner
Foundation: The Psychohistorians
1978
Julie Harris
The Belle of Amherst
Alex Haley
Alex Haley Tells the Story of His Search for Roots
Original Cast & Ntozake Shange
For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf
Christopher Tolkien
The Silmarillion
Harry Truman & Ben Gradus
The Truman Tapes
1979
Orson Welles
Citizen Kane (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Henry Fonda
The Grapes of Wrath
Judith Anderson , Claire Bloom , James Mason , George Rose & Gordon Gould
Wuthering Heights
Richard Nixon & David Frost
The Nixon Interviews with David Frost
Various Artists
Roots (Original Television Soundtrack) }}
1980s
Year[I]
Performing Artist
Work
1980
John Gielgud
Ages of Man (Readings from Shakespeare)
Henry Fonda
The Ox-Bow Incident
Jim Morrison
An American Prayer
Ken Nordine
Stare with Your Ears
Various Artists
Apocalypse Now (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Orson Welles & Helen Hayes
Orson Welles & Helen Hayes at Their Best
1981
Pat Carroll
Gertrude Stein, Gertrude Stein, Gertrude Stein
Mahalia Jackson
I Sing Because I'm Happy, Vols. 1 and 2
Original Cast
Adventures of Luke Skywalker: The Empire Strikes Back
Orson Welles
Obediently Yours
Peter Ustinov
James Thurber : A Curb In The Sky And Other Stories
1982
Orson Welles
Donovan's Brain
E. G. Marshall
Justice Holmes ' Decisions
James Mason
Vladimir Nabokov: Lolita
Paul McCartney & Vic Garbarini
The McCartney Interview
Ed McMahon
'Twas the Night Before Christmas (from Christmas with Friends , featuring Ed McMahon, Doc Severinsen , and Tommy Newsom )
1983
Tom Voegeli
Raiders of the Lost Ark : The Movie on Record
Roger Rees
Charles Dickens' Nicholas Nickleby
Isaac Asimov
Foundation's Edge
John Gielgud & Ralph Richardson
No Man's Land
Arthur C. Clarke
2010: Odyssey Two
1984
William Warfield
Copland : Lincoln Portrait
Steve Allen & Jayne Meadows
Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Home Computers
Jane Fonda & Femmy De Lyser
Jane Fonda's Workout Record for Pregnancy, Birth and Recovery
John Gielgud & Irene Worth
Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats
1985
Ben Kingsley
The Words of Gandhi
Jeremy Irons & Glenn Close
The Real Thing (Broadway Cast)
Jesse Jackson
Our Time Has Come
John Lennon & Yoko Ono
Heart Play (Unfinished Dialogue)
1986
Mike Berniker , producer & the Broadway cast
Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
Alan Arkin
Catch-22
Dick Cavett
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
John le Carré
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
Philip Roth
Zuckerman Bound
1987
Johnny Cash , Jerry Lee Lewis , Chips Moman , Ricky Nelson , Roy Orbison , Carl Perkins & Sam Phillips
Interviews from the Class of '55 Recording Sessions
F. Murray Abraham
Interview with the Vampire
Ray Bradbury
The Stories of Ray Bradbury
Bill Cosby
Hardheaded Boys
John Gielgud
Gulliver (composed by Patrick Williams )
1988
Garrison Keillor
Lake Wobegon Days
Lauren Bacall
Lauren Bacall by Myself
Katharine Hepburn
"Lincoln Portrait " (from Aaron Copland : Lincoln Portrait )
Leonard Nimoy
Whales Alive
Leonard Nimoy & George Takei
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
1989
Jesse Jackson
"Speech by Rev. Jesse Jackson, July 27"(from One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism )
John Cleese
The Screwtape Letters
John Gielgud
A Christmas Carol
Garrison Keillor & Various Artists
A Prairie Home Companion: The 2nd Annual Farewell Performance
Jonathan Winters
Winters' Tale
1990s
2000s
2010s
Year[I]
Performing Artist
Work
2010
Michael J. Fox
Always Looking Up
Yuri Rasovsky & Josh Stanton
Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon
Richard Dreyfuss & David Strathairn
The Lincoln–Douglas Debates
Jonathan Winters
A Very Special Time
Jimmy Carter
We Can Have Peace in the Holy Land
Carrie Fisher
Wishful Drinking
2011
Jon Stewart & The Daily Show Staff
Earth (The Audiobook)
Woody Allen
The Woody Allen Collection: Mere Anarchy , Side Effects , Without Feathers , Getting Even
Carol Burnett
This Time Together
Craig Ferguson
American on Purpose
Michael J. Fox
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Future
Sarah Silverman
The Bedwetter
2012
Betty White
If You Ask Me (and of Course You Won't)
Tina Fey
Bossypants
Nathan Burbank, Bryan Cumming, Dennis Scott & David Toledo
Fab Fan Memories: The Beatles Bond
Dan Donohue & the Oregon Shakespeare Festival cast
Hamlet
Val Kilmer & the Hollywood Theater of the Ear Cast
The Mark of Zorro
2013
Janis Ian
Society's Child
Scott Creswell & Dan Zitt, producers
American Grown
Bill Clinton
Back to Work
Rachel Maddow
Drift
Ellen DeGeneres
Seriously... I'm Kidding
2014
Stephen Colbert
America Again: Re-becoming The Greatness We Never Weren't
Carol Burnett
Carrie and Me
Billy Crystal
Still Foolin' Em
David Sedaris
Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls
Pete Seeger
The Storm King
2015
Joan Rivers
Diary of a Mad Diva
James Franco
Actors Anonymous
Jimmy Carter
A Call to Action: Women, Religion, Violence, and Power
John Waters
Carsick: John Waters Hitchhikes Across America
Elizabeth Warren
A Fighting Chance
Gloria Gaynor
We Will Survive: True Stories of Encouragement, Inspiration and the Power of Song
2016
Jimmy Carter
A Full Life: Reflections at 90
Patti Smith
Blood on Snow
Dick Cavett
Brief Encounters: Conversations, Magic Moments and Assorted Hijinks
Janis Ian & Jean Smart
Patience and Sarah
Amy Poehler
Yes Please
2017
Carol Burnett
In Such Good Company: Eleven Years of Laughter, Mayhem, and Fun in the Sandbox
Elvis Costello
Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink
Amy Schumer
The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo
Patti Smith
M Train
Various Artists
Under the Big Black Sun: A Personal History of L.A. Punk
2018
Carrie Fisher
The Princess Diarist
Bruce Springsteen
Born to Run
Shelly Peiken
Confessions of a Serial Songwriter
Bernie Sanders & Mark Ruffalo
Our Revolution: A Future to Believe In
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Astrophysics for People in a Hurry
2019
Jimmy Carter
Faith: A Journey for All
Courtney B. Vance
Accessory to War
David Sedaris
Calypso
Questlove
Creative Quest
Tiffany Haddish
The Last Black Unicorn
2020s
Multiple wins & nominations
The following individuals received two or more awards:
The following individuals received three or more nominations:
See also
1958−1979 1980−1999 2000−2019 2020−present
General Children's, Comedy, Audio Book Narration & Storytelling, Visual Media & Music Video/Film Classical Country & American Roots Gospel & Contemporary Christian Jazz, Traditional Pop, Contemporary Instrumental & Musical Theater Latin, Global, African, Reggae & New Age, Ambient or Chant Package, Notes & Historical Pop & Dance/Electronic Production, Engineering, Composition & Arrangement R&B, Rap and Spoken Word Poetry Rock, Metal & Alternative Special Awards