Grammy Award for Best Audio Book, Narration & Storytelling Recording

Grammy Award for Best Audio Book, Narration & Storytelling Recording
Awarded forquality spoken word albums
CountryUnited States
Presented byNational Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences
First awarded1959
Currently held byViola Davis, Finding Me (2023)
Websitegrammy.com

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

Year[I] Performing Artist Work
1959
Stan Freberg The Best of the Stan Freberg Shows
Melvyn Douglas, Vincent Price, Carl Sandburg, & Ed Begley Great American Speeches
Stan Freberg Green Christmas
Elaine May & Mike Nichols Improvisations to Music

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

Year[I] Performing Artist Work
1990
Gilda Radner It's Always Something
Erma Bombeck I Want to Grow Hair, I Want to Grow Up, I Want to Go to Boise
Robert Fulghum All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten
John Gielgud Sir John Gielgud Reads Alice in Wonderland
Jason Robards, Steve Allen, Douglas Edwards & Cast The War of the Worlds 50th Anniversary Production
1991
George Burns Gracie: A Love Story
Garrison Keillor A Prairie Home Companion: The 4th Annual Farewell Performance
John F. Kennedy Jr. Profiles in Courage
Kyle MacLachlan "Diane..." The Twin Peaks Tapes of Agent Cooper
Jimmy Stewart Jimmy Stewart and His Poems
1992
Ken Burns The Civil War
Douglas Adams The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Katharine Hepburn Me: Stories of My Life
Charles Kuralt A Life on the Road
1993
Earvin "Magic" Johnson & Robert O'Keefe What You Can Do to Avoid AIDS
Fannie Flagg Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe
Garrison Keillor Stories
Ken Nordine Devout Catalyst
Patrick Stewart A Christmas Carol
Orson Welles & Peter Bogdanovich This Is Orson Welles
1994
Maya Angelou On the Pulse of Morning
Levar Burton Miles: The Autobiography
Arlo Guthrie Bound for Glory
Paul Newman & Joanne Woodward Mr. and Mrs. Bridge
Emma Thompson Howards End
1995
Henry Rollins Get in the Van: On the Road with Black Flag
Kenneth Branagh & the Renaissance Theatre Company Hamlet
Ken Burns Baseball
Ben Kingsley Schindler's List
Gregory Peck The Bible (The New Testament)
1996
Maya Angelou Phenomenal Woman
Danny Glover Long Walk to Freedom
Garrison Keillor Guy Noir: Radio Private Eye
Leonard Nimoy I Am Spock
1997
Hillary Clinton It Takes a Village
Ed Asner, Ellen Burstyn, C. C. H. Pounder & Alfre Woodard Grow Old Along with Me, the Best Is Yet to Be
Lauren Bacall, Martin Landau, Jack Lemmon & Gregory Peck Harry S Truman: A Journey to Independence
Garrison Keillor The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Charles Kuralt Charles Kuralt's America
1998
Charles Kuralt Charles Kuralt's Spring
Maya Angelou Even the Stars Look Lonesome
Jimmy Carter Living Faith
Walter Cronkite A Reporter's Life
Jodie Foster Contact
1999
Christopher Reeve Still Me
Jimmy Carter The Virtues of Aging
David Holt & Bill Mooney Spiders in the Hairdo: Modern Urban Legends
Garrison Keillor Wobegon Boy
Toni Morrison Beloved

2000s

Year[I] Performing Artist Work
2000
LeVar Burton The Autobiography of Martin Luther King Jr.
Nanci Griffith The Chieftains: The Authorized Biography (by John Glatt)
Merle Haggard Merle Haggard's My House of Memories
Frank McCourt 'Tis
Mandy Patinkin & Betty Buckley with Walter Cronkite The Diaries of Adam & Eve: Translated by Mark Twain
2001
Sidney Poitier The Measure of a Man
Matt Dillon On the Road
Steve Martin Shopgirl
Jerry Stiller & Anne Meara Married to Laughter: A Love Story
Various artists including Kathleen Turner, Patrick Stewart & Al Pacino The Complete Shakespeare Sonnets
2002
Quincy Jones Q: The Autobiography of Quincy Jones
Jimmy Carter An Hour Before Daylight
Garrison Keillor Lake Wobegon Summer 1956
Carl Reiner Letters from the Earth: Uncensored Writings by Mark Twain
Various artists including Rob Lowe, Noah Wyle, Joan Allen & Tom Brokaw and narrator Harry Smith War Letters: Extraordinary Correspondence from American Wars
2003
Maya Angelou A Song Flung Up to Heaven
Tim Robbins The Great Gatsby
Robert Evans The Kid Stays in the Picture
Michael J. Fox Lucky Man
Christopher Reeve Nothing Is Impossible}}
2004
Al Franken Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them
Don Cheadle Fear Itself
Hillary Clinton Living History
Nikki Giovanni The Nikki Giovanni Poetry Collection
Bill Maher When You Ride Alone You Ride with bin Laden
2005
Bill Clinton My Life
Tyne Daly, John Lithgow, Joanne Rogers, Lily Tomlin & André Watts The World According to Mr. Rogers
David Holt & Zeb Holt Live & Kickin' at the National Storytelling Festival
Steve Martin The Pleasure of My Company
David Sedaris Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim
2006
Barack Obama Dreams from My Father
George Carlin When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops?
Al Franken The Al Franken Show Party Album
Garrison Keillor The Adventures of Guy Noir
Sean Penn Chronicles: Volume One
2007
Jimmy Carter Our Endangered Values
Ossie Davis & Ruby Dee Ossie and Ruby
Al Franken The Truth (with Jokes)
Bill Maher New Rules: Polite Musings from a Timid Observer
Bob Newhart I Shouldn't Even Be Doing This!
2008
Barack Obama The Audacity of Hope
Alan Alda Things I Overheard While Talking to Myself
Maya Angelou Celebrations
Bill Clinton Giving
Jimmy Carter Sunday Mornings in Plains
2009
Beau Bridges, Cynthia Nixon & Blair Underwood An Inconvenient Truth
Steve Martin Born Standing Up
Stephen Colbert and The Colbert Report cast I Am America (and So Can You!)
Sidney Poitier Life Beyond Measure
David Sedaris When You Are Engulfed in Flames

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

Year[I] Performing Artist Work
2020
Michelle Obama Becoming
Michael Diamond, Adam Horovitz, Scott Sherratt & Dan Zitt (producers) The Beastie Boys Book
Eric Alexandrakis Catatonia: 20 Years as a Two-Time Cancer Survivor
John Waters Mr. Know-It-All
Sekou Andrews & the String Theory Sekou Andrews & the String Theory
2021
Rachel Maddow Blowout: Corrupted Democracy, Rogue State Russia and the Richest, Most Destructive Industry on Earth
Flea Acid for the Children: A Memoir
Ken Jennings Alex Trebek — The Answer Is...
Ronan Farrow Catch and Kill
Meryl Streep (& Full Cast) Charlotte's Web
2022
Don Cheadle Carry On: Reflections for a New Generation from John Lewis
LeVar Burton Aftermath
J. Ivy Catching Dreams: Live at Fort Knox Chicago
Dave Chappelle & Amir Sulaiman 8:46
Barack Obama A Promised Land
2023
Viola Davis Finding Me
Mel Brooks All About Me!: My Remarkable Life in Show Business
Jamie Foxx Act Like You Got Some Sense
Lin-Manuel Miranda Aristotle and Dante Dive into the Waters of the World
Questlove Music Is History
2024
Meryl Streep Big Tree
William Shatner Boldly Go: Reflections on a Life of Awe and Wonder
Rick Rubin The Creative Act: A Way of Being
Bernie Sanders It’s Ok to Be Angry About Capitalism
Michelle Obama The Light We Carry: Overcoming In Uncertain Times

Multiple wins & nominations

The following individuals received two or more awards:

Wins Person
3 Maya Angelou
Jimmy Carter
2 Barack Obama
Orson Welles

The following individuals received three or more nominations:

Nominations Person
10 John Gielgud
9 Jimmy Carter
7 Orson Welles
5 Maya Angelou
4 Walter Cronkite
3 Carol Burnett
Barack Obama
James Earl Jones
James Mason

See also


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