Some of the biggest names in audiobook excellence mingled in Manhattan last night, as the Audio Publishers Association presented its 2026 Audie Awards in a gala celebration at Pier Sixty, Chelsea Piers. Amid an epic awards season, the Audies stand out on the discerning listener’s calendar, honoring excellence in audiobooks and spoken-word entertainment.
The evening’s biggest award, for Audiobook of the Year, went to Suzanne Collins’s Sunrise on the Reaping. A true publishing phenomenon, Sunrise marked an incredible return for the Hunger Games series and a fan-favorite performance by Yellowstone’s Jefferson White. Other top honorees included The Big Fix: A Jack Bergin Mystery (Best Adaptation/Original Work), Dragon Day (Best Production and Sound Design), The Correspondent (Best Ensemble Performance), and The River Has Roots (Judges’ Category: New Voice Award for Gem Carmella).
If you’re searching for your next great listen, look no further—each is a standout listening experience. Congratulations to all the winners and nominees!
Winner: Audiobook of the Year
Written by Suzanne Collins
Narrated by Jefferson White
The phenomenal fifth book in the Hunger Games series! As the day dawns on the 50th annual Hunger Games, fear grips the districts of Panem. This year, in honor of the Quarter Quell, twice as many tributes will be taken from their homes. Back in District 12, Haymitch Abernathy is trying not to think too hard about his chances. All he cares about is making it through the day and being with the girl he loves. When Haymitch's name is called, he can feel all his dreams break...
Winner: Best Adaptation/Original Work
Written by John Mankiewicz, Jamie Napoli, Daniel Pyne, Katie Pyne, and Aaron Lipstadt
Narrated by Jon Hamm, Ana de la Reguera, Alia Shawkat, Omar Epps, Erin Moriarty, Sosie Bacon, John Slattery, and a full cast
Jon Hamm returns as intrepid private eye Jack Bergin in this thrilling, hard-boiled Audible Original series. Set against the backdrop of the real-life battle to bring the Brooklyn Dodgers to Los Angeles, Bergin investigates a brutal murder at the request of an old flame (Ana de la Reguera), and uncovers a deadly conspiracy to forcefully evict a Mexican American community. Created by writer/executive producer John Mankiewicz, directed by Aaron Lipstadt, and featuring a star-studded cast, this gritty and winding tale delivers both meaning and mayhem with a solid punch.
Winner: Autobiography/Memoir
Written by Tina Knowles
Narrated by Tina Knowles, Beyoncé, Solange, Kelly Rowland, Angie Beyincé
Tina Knowles, the mother of iconic singer-songwriters Beyoncé Knowles-Carter, Solange Knowles, and bonus daughter Kelly Rowland, is known the world over as a Matriarch with a capital M: a determined, self-possessed, self-aware, and wise woman who raised and inspired some of the great artists of our time. But this story is about so much more than that. Matriarch begins with a precocious, if unruly, little girl growing up in 1950s Galveston, the youngest of seven. She is in love with her world, with extended family on every other porch and the sounds of Motown and the lapping beach always within earshot. But as the realities of race and the limitations of girlhood set in, she begins to dream of the world beyond...
Winner: Best Fiction Narrator
Written by Diana Gabaldon
Narrated by Kristin Atherton
The first book in Diana Gabaldon’s acclaimed Outlander saga, the basis for the Starz original series, this is the story that started it all, introducing two remarkable characters, Claire Beauchamp Randall and Jamie Fraser, in a spellbinding novel of passion and history that combines exhilarating adventure with a love story for the ages. Scottish Highlands, 1945. Claire Randall, a former British combat nurse, is just back from the war and reunited with her husband on a second honeymoon when she walks through a standing stone in one of the ancient circles that dot the British Isles. Suddenly she is a Sassenach—an “outlander”—in a Scotland torn by war and raiding clans in the year of Our Lord ... 1743.
Winner: Best Nonfiction Narrator
Written by Lionel Richie
Narrated by Blair Underwood
As a storyteller second to none, Lionel Richie is ready to tell it all. In this intimate, deeply candid memoir, Lionel revisits hilarious and harrowing events to inspire all who doubt themselves or feel their dreams don’t matter. Lionel chronicles lessons learned during his unlikely story of remarkable success—his dramatic transformation from painfully shy, “tragically” late bloomer to world-class entertainer and composer of love songs that have played as the soundtrack of our lives.
Winner: Best Production & Sound Design
Written by Bob Proehl
Narrated by Hayley Atwell, Michael Chiklis, Aldis Hodge, Greta Lee, Jimmi Simpson, and a full cast
From the producers of the Maze Runner trilogy comes this fictional oral history of the appearance of dragons on earth. Compiled by intrepid journalist Neve Pride, this archive of recordings spans the months after dragons emerged on earth, chronicling the communities that sprang up amid the destruction, the scientists, military leaders, and experts searching for a defense, and those steadfastly seeking the missing. Neve and her young daughter Bex travel among the wreckage speaking to those left behind and surviving, against all odds. Neve records everything for history, and in the hopes of locating a clue as to where the dragons came from and how one might stop them...
Winner: Business/Personal Development
Written and narrated by Jefferson Fisher
Jefferson Fisher, trial lawyer and one of the leading voices on real-world communication, offers a tried-and-true framework that will show you how to transform your life and your relationships by improving your next conversation. Fisher has gained millions of followers through short, simple, practical videos teaching people how to argue less and talk more. Whether it’s handling a heated conversation, dealing with a difficult personality, or standing your ground with confidence, his down-to-earth teachings have helped countless people navigate life’s toughest situations.
Winner: Ensemble Performance
Written by Virginia Evans
Narrated by Maggi-Meg Reed, Jane Oppenheimer, Carly Robins, Jeff Ebner, David Pittu, Chris Andrew Ciulla, and a full cast
Throughout her life, Sybil Van Antwerp has used letters to make sense of the world and her place in it. Most mornings, around half past 10, Sybil sits down to write letters—to her brother, to her best friend, to the president of the university who will not allow her to audit a class she desperately wants to take, to Joan Didion and Larry McMurtry to tell them what she thinks of their latest books, and to one person to whom she writes often yet never sends the letter...
Winner: Erotica
Written by Sierra Simone
Narrated by Sophie Eastlake, Teddy Hamilton, Rex Rhys, Shane East, and Valerie Azlynn
Warned as a girl to keep her kisses to herself, Greer Galloway wants nothing to do with kisses—or love. Twice she's ignored the childhood warning and kissed a man, and both times ended in gutting, miserable heartbreak. Now she's sworn off all romance forever, determined to teach her classes and do her research and live out the rest of her days alone. But soon, Greer finds herself caught between past and present, pleasure and pain...
Winner: Español - Spanish Language
Written by Manel Loureiro
Narrated by Javier Rey, Maggie Civantos, José María de Tavira, Manuel Chacón, Oleg Kricunova, Marta Barriuso, Peter Nikolas, Rosalía Castro, Mercedes Castro, Manuel de Andrés, David García Palencia, Oscar Goikoetxea, Sabela Mascuñana, Daniel Méndez
Adaptación a ficción sonora de la obra homónima de Manel Loureiro. Un virus letal se desata accidentalmente en el Cáucaso, extendiéndose velozmente por todo el planeta. Los infectados fallecen, pero resurgen como criaturas violentas y sin conciencia. En Galicia, un joven abogado observa impotente cómo su apacible vida se desmorona cuando la plaga alcanza su ciudad. Ahora, debe enfrentarse a una lucha desesperada por la supervivencia en un territorio familiar que se ha transformado en un infierno terrenal. Una trepidante historia de horror y supervivencia en el corazón de España.
Winner: Faith-Based Fiction or Nonfiction
Written by Chad Robichaux and Jack Stewart
Narrated by Ray Porter
Foster Quinn is more than a former Force Recon Marine. He’s a husband. A father. A faithful brother to his teammates. When one of them is killed during a high-risk operation to track down a dangerous arms dealer, Foster struggles to balance his roles as a dedicated family man and an elite warrior. Despite his inner demons―or maybe because of them―Foster can’t walk away from his brothers. Then he gets the chance to step in where his best friend left off, assuming a cover identity in Iran that will get him close to the arms dealer and pave the way for a critical mission...
Winner: Fantasy
Written by Christopher Moore
Narrated by Ray Porter
Vienna, 1911. Gustav Klimt, the most famous painter in the Austrian Empire, the darling of Viennese society, spots a woman’s nude body in the Danube canal. He knows he should summon a policeman, but he can’t resist stopping to make a sketch first. And as he draws, the woman coughs. She’s alive! Back at his studio, Klimt and his model-turned-muse Wally tend to the formerly drowned girl. She’s nearly feral and doesn’t remember who she is, or how she came to be floating in the canal. Klimt names her Judith, after one of his most famous paintings, and resolves to help her find her memory...
Winner: Fiction
Written by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Narrated by Kristen DiMercurio, Julia Whelan, and Taylor Jenkins Reid
Joan Goodwin has been obsessed with the stars for as long as she can remember. Thoughtful and reserved, Joan is content with her life as a professor of physics and astronomy at Rice University and as aunt to her precocious niece, Frances. That is, until she comes across an advertisement seeking the first women scientists to join NASA’s space shuttle program. Suddenly, Joan burns to be one of the few people to go to space. Selected from a pool of thousands of applicants in the summer of 1980, Joan begins training at Houston’s Johnson Space Center, alongside an exceptional group of fellow candidates...
Winner: History/Biography
Written by Nicholas Boggs
Narrated by Ron Butler
Drawing on new archival material, original research, and interviews, this spellbinding book is the first major biography of James Baldwin in three decades, revealing how profoundly his personal relationships shaped his life and work. Baldwin: A Love Story, the first major biography of James Baldwin in three decades, reveals how profoundly the writer’s personal relationships shaped his life and work. Drawing on newly uncovered archival material and original research and interviews, this spellbinding book tells the overlapping stories of Baldwin’s most sustaining intimate and artistic relationships...
Winner: Horror
Written by Stephen Graham Jones
Narrated by Shane Ghostkeeper, Marin Ireland, and Owen Teale
A chilling historical horror novel set in the American West in 1912 following a Lutheran priest who transcribes the life of a vampire who haunts the fields of the Blackfeet reservation looking for justice. A diary, written in 1912 by a Lutheran Pastor, is discovered within a wall. What it unveils is a slow massacre, a chain of events that go back to 217 Blackfeet dead in the snow. Told in transcribed interviews by a Blackfeet named Good Stab, who shares the narrative of his peculiar life over a series of confessional visits, this is an American Indian revenge story written by master of horror Stephen Graham Jones.
Winner: Judges Category: New Voice Award
Written by Amal El-Mohtar
Narrated by Gem Carmella
In the small town of Thistleford, on the edge of Faerie, dwells the mysterious Hawthorn family. There, they tend and harvest the enchanted willows and honor an ancient compact to sing to them in thanks for their magic. None more devotedly than the family’s latest daughters, Esther and Ysabel, who cherish each other as much as they cherish the ancient trees. But when Esther rejects a forceful suitor in favor of a lover from the land of Faerie, not only the sisters’ bond but also their lives will be at risk…
Winner: Literary Fiction & Classics
Written by Daniel Kehlmann
Narrated by Nicholas Boulton
G.W. Pabst, one of cinema’s greatest directors of the 20th century, was filming in France when the Nazis seized power. To escape the horrors of the new and unrecognizable Germany, he fled to Hollywood. But now, under the blinding California sun, the world-famous director suddenly looks like a nobody. Not even Greta Garbo, the Hollywood actress whom he made famous, can help him... Kehlmann’s latest oeuvre explores the complicated relationships and distinctions between art and power, beauty and barbarism, cog and conspirator.
Winner: Middle Grade
Written by Renée Watson
Narrated by Bahni Turpin
Sage's 13th birthday was supposed to be about movies and treats, staying up late with her best friend and watching the sunrise together. Instead, it was the day her best friend died. Without the person she had to hold her secrets and dream with, Sage is lost. In a counseling group with other girls who have lost someone close to them, she learns that not all losses are the same, and healing isn't predictable. There is sadness, loneliness, anxiety, guilt, pain, love. And even as Sage grieves, new, good things enter her life—and she just may find a way to know that she can feel it all.
Winner: Mystery
Written by Reese Witherspoon and Harlan Coben
Narrated by Reese Witherspoon, Chris Pine, Kiff VandenHeuvel, Suehyla El-Attar Young, Peter Ganim, Saskia Maarleveld, and James Fouhey
Maggie McCabe is teetering on the brink. A highly skilled and renowned Army combat surgeon, she has always lived life at the edge, where she could make the most impact. And it was all going to plan ... until it wasn’t. Upside down after a devastating series of tragedies leads to her medical license being revoked, Maggie has lost her purpose, but not her nerve or her passion. At her lowest point, she is thrown a lifeline by a former colleague, an elite plastic surgeon whose anonymous clientele demand the best care money can buy, as well as absolute discretion.
Winner: Narration by the Author
Written and narrated by John Green
Tuberculosis has been entwined with humanity for millennia. Once romanticized as a malady of poets, today tuberculosis is a disease of poverty that walks the trails of injustice and inequity we blazed for it. In 2019, John Green met Henry, a young tuberculosis patient at Lakka Government Hospital in Sierra Leone while traveling with Partners in Health. John became fast friends with Henry, a boy with spindly legs and a big, goofy smile. In the years since that first visit to Lakka, Green has become a vocal and dynamic advocate for increased access to treatment and wider awareness of the health care inequities that allow this curable, treatable infectious disease to also be the deadliest...
Winner: Nonfiction
Written and narrated by John Fugelsang
For more than two centuries, the United States Constitution has given us the right to a society where church and state exist independently. But Christianity has been hijacked by far-right groups and politicians who seek to impose their narrow views on government, often to justify oppressive and unequal policies. The extremists who weaponize the Bible for earthly power aren’t actually on the side of Jesus—and historically they never have been. How do we fight back against those acting—literally—in bad faith? Comedian and broadcaster John Fugelsang finally offers the answers...
Winner: Romance
Written by Ana Huang
Narrated by Jason Clark and Nia Serge
Dangerous. Powerful. Reclusive. Vuk Markovic is notorious for shunning human interactions. The scarred billionaire rarely talks, and he has no interest in relationships outside his small but trusted circle. His only exception? Her. The beauty to his beast, the object of his obsession. He saw her first. He wanted her first. But now, she’s engaged to his oldest friend—and the closer the wedding looms, the more he’s torn between loyalty and desire...
Winner: Science Fiction
Written by Eric Heisserer
Narrated by Ray Porter, Marin Ireland, and Stephanie Sheh
Federal agent Grant Lukather works for an unknown department of Homeland Security called Predictive Analytics. They look for patterns in tips and chatter to prevent a terrorist event before it happens. One of these calls, about a possible explosion in New Mexico, leads Grant to a case with unimaginable consequences. He meets Sarah Newcomb, a therapist who uses past-life hypnosis in her treatment but has recently stumbled upon a phenomenon that seems to defy logic...
Winner: Short Stories/Collections
Written and narrated by Alton Brown
From cameraman to chef, musician to food scientist, Alton Brown has had a diverse and remarkable career. His work on the Food Network, including creating Good Eats and hosting Iron Chef America and Cutthroat Kitchen, has resonated with countless viewers and home cooks. Now, he shares exactly what’s on his mind, mixing compelling anecdotes from his personal and professional life with in-depth observations on the culinary world, film, personal style, defining meals of his lifetime, and much more.
Winner: Thriller/Suspense
Written by Lisa Jewell
Narrated by Richard Armitage, Joanne Froggatt, Tamaryn Payne, Gemma Whelan, Louise Brealey, and Patience Tomlinson
Restauranteur Paddy Swann was the life of the party until the day a man pushed him in the path of an oncoming train, leaving his twenty-something daughter Ash and wife Nina devastated. Shortly after Paddy’s funeral, the two women receive a surprise in the mail: a note and package from Nick Radcliffe, an old friend of Paddy’s, and a nondescript lighter that once belonged to him decades ago. This unexpected gift draws Nick and Nina closer together—much to Ash’s dismay...
Winner: Young Adult
Written by Libba Bray
Narrated by Jeremy Carlisle Parker, January LaVoy, and Major Curda
It was said that if you write to the Bridegroom’s Oak, the love of your life will answer back. Now, the tree is giving up its secrets at last. In 1940s Germany, Sophie is excited to discover a message waiting for her in the Bridegroom's Oak from a mysterious suitor. Meanwhile, her best friend, Hanna, is sending messages too—but not to find love. As World War II unfolds in their small town of Kleinwald, the oak may hold the key to resistance against the Nazis.
Winner: Young Listeners
Written by Kate McKinnon
Narrated by Kate McKinnon and Emily Lynne
It’s summertime in Antiquarium and everyone has flocked to the majestic lakeside Purple Pearl Hotel, including the nefarious group of evil mad scientists, the Krenetics Research Association. They haven’t given up on resurrecting their fearsome leader, Talon Sharktüth, and now, they’re hot on the trail of the legendary Purple Pearl, a source of power that is rumored to be lost at the bottom of Kagloopy Lake. All they need to do now is find a mysterious creature called a Shrimpmaid, boil the lake (and everything in it) away, and pluck up the pearl!
