Audie Finalists Announced

The Audio Publishers Association (APA) recently announced the names of the 130 finalists for the Eighth Annual Audie Awards. This year, the Audie Awards, which honor excellence in audio publishing, will be presented in 27 categories. A panel of over 150 judges representing all areas of the audiobook world selected the finalists. All titles submitted must have been released between November 1, 2002 and October 31, 2002. The awards will be presented on Friday evening, May 30, at the Petersen Car Museum in Los Angeles, in conjunction with BookExpo America.

The finalists for Fiction, Abridged are:

• The Emperor of Ocean Park, by Stephen L. Carter, read by Peter Francis James (Random House Audio Publishing)
  
• Isobel Gunn, by Audrey Thomas, read by Duncan Fraser (BTCX Audiobooks, an imprint of Goose Lane Editions)
  
• Jackdaws, by Ken Follett, read by Barbara Rosenblat and Colin Stinton (Penguin Audiobooks)
  
• The Nanny Diaries, by Emma McLaughlin & Nicola Kraus, read by Julia Roberts (Random House Audio Publishing)
  
• The Sunday Wife, by Cassandra King, read by Joan Allen (Hyperion AudioBooks)
  

The finalists for Fiction, Unabridged are:

• Atonement, by Ian McEwan, read by Jill Tanner (Recorded Books, LLC)
  
• Austerlitz, by W.G. Sebald, read by Richard Matthews (Books on Tape, Inc.)
  
• Middlesex, by Jeffrey Eugenides, read by Kristoffer Tabori (Audio Renaissance)
  
• Sea Glass, by Anita Shreve, read by Judith Ann Gantly (Time Warner AudioBooks)
  
• Unless, by Carol Shields, read by Joan Allen (HarperCollins Publishers)
  

The finalists for Nonfiction, Abridged are:

• 3000 Degrees: The True Story of a Deadly Fire and the Men Who Fought It, by Sean Flynn, read by Christopher Walker (Listen & Live Audio, Inc.)
  
• A Beautiful Mind, by Sylvia Nasar, read by Edward Herrmann (Simon & Schuster Audio)
  
• A Cook’s Tour, by Anthony Bourdain, read by Anthony Bourdain (HarperCollins Publishers)
  
• Leadership, by Rudolph W. Giuliani, read by Tony Roberts, with an introduction by Rudolph W. Giuliani (Hyperion AudioBooks)
  
• Takedown, by Rick Cowan & Douglas Century, read by Christopher Meloni (Random House Audio Publishing)
  

The finalists for Nonfiction, Unabridged are:

• 3000 Degrees: The True Story of a Deadly Fire and the Men Who Fought It, by Sean Flynn, read by Richard Rohan (Listen & Live Audio, Inc.)
  
• Band of Brothers, by Stephen E. Ambrose, read by Tim Jerome (BBC Audiobooks America)
  
• Bin Laden: The Man Who Declared War on America, by Yosef Bodansky, read by Nadia May (Blackstone Audio Books)
  
• Mark Twain, by Geoffrey C. Ward, Dayton Duncan & Ken Burns, read by Bill Meisle (Random House Audio Publishing)
  
• The Trial & The Death of Socrates, by Plato, read by Bruce Alexander & Jamie Glover with Neville Jason, Gordon Griffin & David Timson (Naxos AudioBooks, Ltd.)
  

In conjunction with the awards, APA is sponsoring a new contest, "Pick the Winners," that invites listeners worldwide to hear selections from the Audie finalists and to cast votes for the winners. Each entrant will receive a copy of AudioFile magazine's Audiobook Month Edition and will also be entered into a Grand Prize drawing for a complete collection of the 2003 Audie winners.

To see the full list of Audie Finalists, or for more information on the "Pick the Winners" contest, go to http://www.audiopub.org/.