Hachette Audio Wins Three Audie Awards
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
HACHETTE AUDIO WINS THREE AUDIE AWARDS® AT THE AUDIOBOOK PUBLISHERS ASSOCIATION’S ANNUAL GALA
David Sedaris, Tyler Merritt, Leslye Penelope and Shayna Small Take Home Winning Honors
(New York, NY)–Three Hachette Audio productions brought home wins from the prestigious Audie® Awards, given every year by the Audiobook Publishers Association, the premiere trade organization for audiobook professionals.
The winners included:
David Sedaris, author and narrator, in the Humor category for HAPPY-GO-LUCKY, his first collection of personal essays since his bestseller Calypso. Sedaris captures the unsettling of our lives when the pandemic hits and mines the peculiarities of lockdown, the losses, the sudden interiority of our daily lives and finds in the upheavals, personal and public, the unexpected, hilarious and poignant that unites us all.
Tyler Merritt, author and narrator, in the Young Listener category for A DOOR MADE FOR ME. Drawn from the author’s own childhood experiences, a young Black boy confronts his first experience of overt racism. Hurt, the young narrator asks of his grandfather: “How can she hate me when she doesn’t know me?” Offering wisdom and encouragement to the child, the grandfather reassures him that another person’s hate does not change the fact that he is loved and that he matters. Merritt’s clear-eyed memory of the emotional impact of the encounter becomes a message of love and acceptance.
Leslye Penelope, in the category of Fantasy, for THE MONSTERS WE DEFY, read by Shayna Small. Set in 1925 Washington DC, Penelope’s dazzling historical fantasy weaves African American folk magic, history and romance into a tale of a heist that will set one woman free. An NPR Best Book of the Year, AudioFile Magazine wrote of Small’s reading, she “imbues her voice with the power of spirits and the determination of a Black woman with the power to talk to them.”
Ana Maria Allessi, VP, Publisher, Hachette Audio had praise for all involved: “We are thrilled that David Sedaris, Tyler Merritt, and Leslye Penelope and Shayna Small were all recognized tonight for their superlative work. Kudos to all those authors and narrators who were nominees and finalists as well. What a privilege and a joy it is to celebrate our authors, narrators, and producing team, all of whom possess immense talent and dedication to the art of audiobooks.”
Celebrating the industry’s achievements in production and performance, the Audie Awards® is the leading award given annually in the United States to honor audiobooks and spoken word entertainment. Spanning twenty-six categories and with over 1500 entries, the program recognizes and honors the previous year’s finest work and talent in this format. Hachette Audio received 15 finalist nominations this year for the Audie Awards® including Pulitzer Prize winner Andrew Sean Greer; acclaimed writers David Sedaris, Scott Turow, and Kwame Alexander; popular narrators and actors like Robert Petkoff and Mela Lee; as well as Hollywood favorites Sam Heughan, Tamera Mowry-Housley, and Anjelah Johnson-Reyes.
Hosted by comedian Michelle Buteau, this year’s award ceremony returned to an in-person gala at New York City’s Chelsea Piers with a live-stream of the festivities on their YouTube channel as well. The fete was attended by a who’s who list of authors; narrators; publishers; reviewers; and distinguished judges. Special guest judges this year include the EGOT winner, author, and professed champion of the audiobook, Whoopi Goldberg and Robin Whitten, the founder and editor of the industry’s key publication, AudioFile Magazine.
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HACHETTE AUDIO is a publisher of a variety of popular genres in audio form, which matches HBG material with talented actors, composers, and producers to find its fullest expression. Their audiobooks are primarily based on material published in print and ebook by Grand Central Publishing, Little, Brown & Company, Hachette Nashville, Orbit, Hachette Books, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, and Perseus Books, and have been recognized for the highest quality of content and production with numerous GRAMMY, Audie, and Earphone awards. Unabridged and abridged titles are available on CD and as digital downloads.
Hachette Audio is an imprint of Hachette Book Group, a leading U.S. general-interest book publisher made up of dozens of esteemed imprints within the publishing groups Grand Central Publishing, Hachette Audio, Hachette Nashville, Little, Brown and Company, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, Orbit, Perseus Books, and Workman Publishing. We also provide custom distribution, fulfillment, and sales services to other publishing companies. Our books and authors have received the Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award, Caldecott Medal, Newbery Medal, Booker Prize, Nobel Peace Prize and other major honors. We are committed to diversity in our company and our publishing programs, and to fostering a culture of inclusion for all our employees and authors. We are proud to be part of Hachette Livre, the world’s third-largest trade and educational publisher. Learn more at hachettebookgroup.com.
HBG’s bestselling authors include Sherman Alexie, David Baldacci, Holly Black, Peter Brown, Sandra Brown, Harlan Coben, Stephen Colbert, Chris Colfer, Michael Connelly, James S.A. Corey, Tina Fey, Sally Field, Newt Gingrich, Malcolm Gladwell, Andrew Sean Greer, Neil Patrick Harris, Victor Davis Hanson, Noah Hawley, Elin Hilderbrand, Douglas Hofstadter, Mark Hyman, T.D. Jakes, N. K. Jemisin, Ibram X. Kendi, Grace Lin, Joyce Meyer, Stephenie Meyer, Walter Mosley, Ijeoma Oluo, Joel Osteen, James Patterson, David Perlmutter, Keith Richards, J.K. Rowling, J.D. Salinger, Stacy Schiff, David Sedaris, Jen Sincero, George Soros, Thomas Sowell, Nicholas Sparks, Rick Steves, Donna Tartt, Scott Turow, David Foster Wallace, Brent Weeks, Lindy West, Tom Wolfe, Malala Yousafzai, and Muhammad Yunus.
HBG also provides a wide range of custom distribution, fulfillment, digital and sales services to third party publishers, including Harry N. Abrams, Chronicle Books, Disney Book Group, Hachette UK, Kids Can Press, Marvel, Moleskine, Nicholas Brealey, Nosy Crow, Octopus Books, Phaidon Press, Phoenix International Publications (pikids), Quarto Publishing Group, Quercus, and Yen Press.
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