It’s that time of year again when audio publishers, narrators, and authors anxiously scan the list of audiobook titles recently released by the APA. The nominations for the 2009 Audie awards have been announced by the Audio Publishers Association and represent the best audiobooks in over 30 categories as selected by distinguished members of that association. The eventual winners will be announced in a gala at the New York Historical Society on May 29th, 2009.

The Audies, sometimes known as the Oscars of the audiobook medium, is the only awards programme in the United States which is solely devoted to the transcription of the written word to the spoken word. Until 2005, these awards were known as The Spoken Word Awards.

Audiobooks are rapidly growing in popularity as evidenced by this years entries from the publishers which was in excess of 1,000.

The APA has also announced that a new category has been added this year which is the Distinguished Achievement in Production, and the nominations for this particular category will be announced in the spring. This category joins the Audiobook of the Year as one of the two most prestigious awards. The Audiobook of the Year award will be presented to the audiobook which has had the most success during the year in terms of quality, innovation, marketing and sales.

Interestingly, The Odyssey, Homer’s epic seafaring adventure, has been included this year. There are at least 5 versions of this masterpiece of Western literature in audiobook format and the APA has selected the BBC Audiobooks in the audio drama category.

Another interesting choice in the Classic Audiobook section is Oscar Wilde’s Picture of Dorian Grey which is narrated by Simon Vance and is almost 8 hours long. There are at least three other versions of this novel in audiobook format and this story about a young narcissistic man and his pact of evil has haunted the imaginations of many readers for more than a hundred years.

With so much doom and gloom around, it’s nice to take a break from the repetitious news on the radio and TV, and lose yourself in the witty imagination of Chip Kidd who has been nominated in the humour category with his original novel, The Learners. This audiobook lasts more than 6 hours and is ideal for that long airplane journey.

The full list of nominations which was released on February 9th, 2009, can be accessed on the APA website.www.audiopub.org.