Finding Me, the memoir by actor Viola Davis, took home the audiobook of the year prize at the Audie Awards, which “recognize distinction in audiobooks and spoken word entertainment.”
The book, written and narrated by Davis and published by HarperCollins, won the top Audie Award; a critic for Kirkus called the print version “an unvarnished chronicle of hard-won, well-earned success.” Davis took home the Audie in the narration by author category as well. The memoir previously won a Grammy Award, making Davis the most recent entertainer to earn “EGOT” status—meaning that she has won the Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony awards.
Rosamund Pike won the best female narrator award for her performance on The Eye of the World, written by Robert Jordan, while fellow actor Seth Numrich won in the best male narrator category for his reading of Fairy Tale, Stephen King’s latest novel.
The fiction award went to Mad Honey, written by Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan, and narrated by Picoult, Boylan, Carrie Coon, and Key Taw. David Sedaris won in the humor category for the narration of his book Happy-Go-Lucky.
The mystery prize went to The Heron, written by Don Winslow and narrated by Ed Harris, and the romance award was given to Delilah Green Doesn’t Care, written by Ashley Herring Blake and narrated by Kristen DiMercurio.
Actor Whoopi Goldberg and AudioFile magazine founder Robin Whitten served as guest judges for the young listeners category. That prize went to A Door Made for Me, written and narrated by Tyler Merritt.
The Audies were first awarded in 1996. Past winners of the audiobook of the year prize have included My Life, written and narrated by Bill Clinton; Bossypants, written and narrated by Tina Fey; and Piranesi, written by Susanna Clarke and narrated by Chiwetel Ejiofor.
A full list of this year’s winners is available at the Audie Awards website.
Michael Schaub, a journalist and regular contributor to NPR, lives near Austin, Texas.
