The annual Audies Awards for Best Audiobook Titles were held at the Museum of the City of New York on May 25, 2010. The Audies are sometimes called the Oscars of the audiobook genre and are the only awards show in the United States that is entirely dedicated to the transcription of the written word to the spoken word. The Audies were once called The Spoken Word Awards. The Audio Editors Association organizes a gala dinner every year, in which the prizes are awarded. This year there were 30 categories, one less than in 2009, and they include Audiobook of the Year, Literary Fiction, Romance, Biography and Distinguished Achievement in Production.
DISTINGUISHED ACHIEVEMENT IN PRODUCTION
Two of the Distinguished Achievement Award nominations are: Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon and CSLewis’ The Screwtape Letters. The Maltese Falcon is performed by a full cast from the award-winning Hollywood Theatre. This is the story of a private detective named Sam Spade who has been played by Humphrey Bogart in the movie of the same name. The production lasts three hours and thirty minutes. The Screwtape Letters by CS Lewis is narrated by Ralph Cosham and is a satire of theology with a witty yet quite serious portrait of human life. The production lasts three hours and thirty minutes. The winner of the Distinguished Achievement in Production category was Kathleen Stockett’s The Help.
FICTION
Two of the most interesting nominations in the fiction category have been made into feature films. Tom Wolfe’s The Bonfire of the Vanities is an American satire about the falling wealth and prestige of a Wall Street millionaire trying to cover up a hit and run accident in a New York ghetto. The audiobook is narrated by Joe Barrett and the production runs for twenty-seven hours and thirty-one minutes. Vikas Swarup’s Slumdog Millionaire is also known as Q&A because it depicts the story of an orphan boy from Mumbai, India who makes a fortune on a TV show. This audiobook features a full cast production and runs for two hours and twenty minutes. The winner of the Fiction category was also The Help by Kathleen Stockett.
suspense/thriller
Greg Iles is a prolific author of thrillers and crime novels, and one of his works, The Devil’s Punchbowl, was nominated in the Thriller/Suspense category. The story is about a small town in Mississippi where gambling in a steamboat casino is not what it seems. The audiobook is narrated by Dick Hill and the production runs for twenty-four hours. The winner in the Thriller/Suspense category was Christian Moerk’s Darling Jim, narrated by Stephen Hoye and Justine Eyre.
AUDIOBOOK OF THE YEAR
One of the nominations for the Audiobook of the Year award was Patrick Swayze’s autobiography, Time of My Life, which, while it didn’t win the Audie, certainly won the hearts of many. The 6-hour audiobook is narrated by Patrick Swayze and tells the story of his life from his early upbringing in Texas to his successful career as an actor in Hollywood. In February 2008, Patrick announced that he had been diagnosed with stage IV pancreatic cancer and sadly passed away in September 2009 at the age of 57. The winner for Audiobook of the Year was Nelson Mandela’s Favorite African Folktales.
Full details of the 2010 Audie winners can be found on the Audio Publishers Association website.