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Nominees for the 2018 Grammys were announced today and people are still talking about how this is quite possibly the most diverse list of nominees with women and people of color dominating the top categories.  Leading those nominations in all the music categories is no surprise to many: Jay-Z for his 2017 release 4:44, with eight.  While many of us tune in to the Grammys for the performances and to see if our favorites will walk away with the trophy, there are other categories that we don’t often see televised, but garner awards as well.

Of interest to us is the category where books are mentioned! Audiobooks! The official category title since 1998 is “Best Spoken Word Album,” but the category has been around since 1959 under a variety of other names.  The first winners were Stan Freberg and Carl Sanburg, each won an award for their spoken word albums.  The 2017 winner was comedienne Carol Burnett for In Such Good Company: Eleven Years of Laughter, Mayhem, and Fun in the Sandbox. Three U.S Presidents have won this award: Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama; Obama also won a Grammy for his first book, Dreams from My Father, while he was still a member of the U.S. Senate.

The nominees for 2018, emerged from a list of considered entries that numbered over 20,000 across all categories— many nominated by Grammy voting members, publishers, publicists, record companies, radio personalities, and other professionals.  In the  Spoken Word category, these included books about lost musicians like David Bowie, political analyses like What Happened by Hillary Clinton, as well as other memoirs and recorded books. Nominees were voted on by members of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), also referred to as “The Academy,” as are final winners. Fans cannot vote for Grammy contenders, unless there is a special category The Academy and its Board decide to open to the public.

The nominees announced today include an astrophysicist, a former presidential candidate, a Grammy-winning songwriter, an eternal icon, and a posthumous nomination for a Star Wars princess:

Best Spoken Word Album (Includes Poetry, Audio Books & Storytelling):


Astrophysics For People In A Hurry — Neil Degrasse Tyson

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Born To Run — Bruce Springsteen

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Confessions Of A Serial Songwriter — Shelly Peiken

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Our Revolution: A Future to Believe In — Bernie Sanders, Mark Ruffalo

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The Princess Diarist — Carrie Fisher

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The 60th Annual Grammy Awards will take place on January 28, 2018 and will broadcast live on CBS from Madison Square Garden in New York.  The host this year is James Corden, host of The Late Late Show with James Corden on CBS. Corden is best known for his series of viral videos, Carpool Karaoke.

 

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Aisha K. Staggers

Aisha K. Staggers has been writing since middle school. She had her first major publication in her local newspaper's entertainment section while a sophomore in high school, a publication in another state paper followed. Aisha has been contributing to various paper, magazines and textbooks for over 15 years. In addition to her time as an instructor of social sciences in higher education, Aisha has served as a director of education and policy research centers, and on the staff of legislative commissions. Aisha previously served on the Executive Board of the CT Young Democrats Women's Caucus and has remained active in politics and public policy. She is an alumni of Albertus Magnus College in New Haven, CT and Fisk University in Nashville, TN where she earned Bachelor's and Master's Degrees, respectively, and completed the South Carolina Education Policy Fellowship Program in 2008. Currently, Aisha is Senior Editor for BookTrib, a division of the literary public relations firm, Meryl Moss Media. In addition to her own work, Aisha will be writing the liner notes for an upcoming Prince tribute album and contributing a chapter to a 2018 scholarly work on Prince and the Minneapolis Sound.

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