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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 . In 2020, spoken-word children's albums were moved here from the Best Children's Album category.<ref>Template:Cite magazine </ref>
From 2023 it has been awarded as Best Audio Book, Narration & Storytelling Recording .<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web
}}</ref> Poetry reading now has its own Grammy category, Best Spoken Word Poetry Album .
Years reflect the year in which the Grammy Awards were handed out, for a recording released in the previous year.
Recipients
File:Stan Freberg 1956.jpg Stan Freberg was the first recipient of the award in 1959.File:Carl Sandburg NYWTS.jpg Carl Sandburg received the award in 1960.File:Leonard Bernstein - 1950s.JPG Leonard Bernstein received the award in 1962.File:Charles Laughton-publicity2.JPG Charles Laughton received the award in 1963.File:Edward R. Murrow.jpg Edward R. Murrow received the award in 1967.File:Martin Luther King Jr with medallion NYWTS.jpg Martin Luther King Jr. won the award posthumously in 1971 for Why I Oppose the War in Vietnam .File:Richard Harris 2.jpg Richard Harris won the award in 1974.File:Peter Cook Dudley Moore Kraft Music Hall1.jpg Peter Cook & Dudley Moore won the award in 1975.File:James Whitmore.jpg James Whitmore won the award in 1976.File:Orson Welles 1937.jpg Director Orson Welles received the award twice, in 1977 and 1979. File:James Earl Jones Baltimore.jpg James Earl Jones received the award in 1977.File:John Gielgud 12. Allan Warren.jpg 8-time nominee Sir John Gielgud received the award in 1980. File:Portrait of William Warfield LCCN2004663694.png William Warfield received the award in 1984.File:Ben Kingsley 2012.jpg Actor Sir Ben Kingsley won for The Words of Gandhi in 1985. File:APHC2014GK.jpg Garrison Keillor won the award in 1988.File:Gilda Radner - 1980.jpg 1990 award winner, comedian Gilda Radner . File:George Burns Allan Warren.jpg Comedian George Burns won the award in 1991. File:Ken Burns 2016.jpg Documentarian Ken Burns won in 1992. File:Magic Johnson at SXSW 2022 (51958828669) (cropped).jpg Magic Johnson won in 1993.File:Angelou at Clinton inauguration (cropped 2).jpg Three-time winner, American poet Maya Angelou . File:Hillary Clinton by Gage Skidmore 4 (cropped).jpg Former First Lady of the United States Hillary Clinton won the award in 1997. File:C Reeve in Marriage of Figaro Opening night 1985.jpg Christopher Reeve won in 1999.File:LeVar Burton (53159088327).jpg LeVar Burton won the award in 2000.File:Sidney Poitier-NPS (cropped).jpg Actor Sidney Poitier won the award for his autobiography The Measure of a Man File:Quincy Jones 2011 Shankbone.JPG Quincy Jones won in 2002.File:Bill Clinton.jpg Former President of the United States Bill Clinton won in 2005. File:President Barack Obama.jpg Two-time winner, former President of the United States Barack Obama won in 2006 and 2008. File:JimmyCarterPortrait (cropped).jpg Four-time winner, former President of the United States Jimmy Carter . File:Michael J Fox 2020.jpg Michael J. Fox won in 2010.File:Jon Stewart MFF 2016.jpg Jon Stewart won the award in 2011.File:Betty White 2010.jpg 2012 award winner, Betty White . File:Stephen Colbert December 2019.jpg Comedian Stephen Colbert won in 2014. File:Joan Rivers 2010 - David Shankbone.jpg Comedienne Joan Rivers won in 2015. File:Carol Burnett 2014.jpg Comedienne Carol Burnett won in 2017. File:Carrie Fisher 2013-a straightened.jpg Carrie Fisher won the award in 2018, posthumously.File:Michelle Obama 2013 official portrait.jpg Former First Lady of the United States Michelle Obama won in 2020 and 2024. File:Don Cheadle UNEP 2011 (cropped).jpg Don Cheadle won for Carry On: Reflections for a New Generation from John Lewis in 2022.File:Viola Davis (28601043285) (cropped).jpg Viola Davis won the award in 2023 achieving the EGOT
1950s
1960s
Year{{#if:[I]|[I] |[2] }}
Performing Artist
Work
1960 CitationClass=web
}}</ref>
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 CitationClass=web
}}</ref>
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 CitationClass=web
}}</ref>
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 CitationClass=web
}}</ref>
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 CitationClass=web
}}</ref>
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 , & othersThe Badmen
Norman Weiser & David Teig
John F. Kennedy – The Presidential Years
1965 CitationClass=web
}}</ref>
That Was the Week That Was BBC Tribute to John F. Kennedy
Laurence Olivier Othello
Richard Burton , Hume Cronyn , John Gielgud , Alfred Drake , George Voskovec , Eileen Herlie , William Redfield & George RossHamlet
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 CitationClass=web
}}</ref>
Goddard Lieberson , producerJohn 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 CitationClass=web
}}</ref>
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 CitationClass=web
}}</ref>
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 CitationClass=web
}}</ref>
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{{#if:[I]|[I] |[3] }}
Performing Artist
Work
1970 CitationClass=web
}}</ref>
Art Linkletter & Diane Linkletter We Love You, Call Collect
Walter Cronkite Man on the Moon
James Earl Jones The Great White Hope
1971 CitationClass=web
}}</ref>
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 CitationClass=web
}}</ref>
Les Crane Desiderata
Richard Chamberlain Hamlet Hallmark Hall of Fame
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 CitationClass=web
}}</ref>
The Original Broadway Cast
Lenny
Angela Davis Angela Davis Speaks
Rod McKuen The Word
Yevgeny Yevtushenko Yevtushenko
1974 CitationClass=web
}}</ref>
Richard Harris Jonathan Livingston Seagull
Billie Holiday Songs and Conversations
Vincent Price Tales of Witches, Ghosts and Goblins
Kurt Vonnegut Jr. Slaughterhouse Five
John Wayne America, Why I Love Her
1975 CitationClass=web
}}</ref>
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 CitationClass=web
}}</ref>
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 CitationClass=web
}}</ref>
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 CitationClass=web
}}</ref>
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 GradusThe Truman Tapes
1979 CitationClass=web
}}</ref>
Orson Welles Citizen Kane (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Henry Fonda The Grapes of Wrath
Judith Anderson , Claire Bloom , James Mason , George Rose & Gordon GouldWuthering Heights
Richard Nixon & David Frost The Nixon Interviews with David Frost
Various Artists
Roots (Original Television Soundtrack)
1980s
Year{{#if:[I]|[I] |[4] }}
Performing Artist
Work
1980 CitationClass=web
}}</ref>
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 CitationClass=web
}}</ref>
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 CitationClass=web
}}</ref>
Orson Welles Donovan's Brain
E. G. Marshall Justice Holmes ' Decisions
James Mason Vladimir Nabokov: Lolita
Paul McCartney & Vic GarbariniThe McCartney Interview
Ed McMahon 'Twas the Night Before Christmas Christmas with Friends , featuring Ed McMahon, Doc Severinsen , and Tommy Newsom )
1983 CitationClass=web
}}</ref>
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 CitationClass=web
}}</ref>
William Warfield Copland : Lincoln Portrait
Steve Allen & Jayne Meadows Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Home Computers
Jane Fonda & Femmy De LyserJane Fonda's Workout Record for Pregnancy, Birth and Recovery
John Gielgud & Irene Worth Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats
1985 CitationClass=web
}}</ref>
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 CitationClass=web
}}</ref>
Mike Berniker , producer & the Broadway castMa 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 CitationClass=web
}}</ref>
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 Patrick Williams )
1988 CitationClass=web
}}</ref>
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 CitationClass=web
}}</ref>
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 ArtistsA Prairie Home Companion: The 2nd Annual Farewell Performance
Jonathan Winters Winters' Tale
1990s
2000s
2010s
Year{{#if:[I]|[I] |[7] }}
Performing Artist
Work
2010 CitationClass=web
}}</ref>
Michael J. Fox Always Looking Up
Yuri Rasovsky & Josh StantonDashiell 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 Template:Cite news </ref>
Jon Stewart & The Daily Show 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 CitationClass=web
}}</ref>
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 CastThe Mark of Zorro
2013 CitationClass=web
}}</ref>
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 CitationClass=web
}}</ref>
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 CitationClass=web
}}</ref>
Joan Rivers (posthumous)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 Template:Cite magazine </ref>
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 Template:Cite news </ref>
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 Template:Cite news </ref>
Carrie Fisher (posthumous)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 Template:Cite magazine </ref>
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
The following individuals received two or more awards:
The following individuals received three or more nominations:
See also
References
Template:Reflist
Template:Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album
Template:Grammy Award categories
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