Spoken Word

68th Annual GRAMMY® Awards

Best Spoken Word Or Non-musical Album

Meditations: The Reflections Of His Holiness The Dalai Lama. Dalai Lama

68th Annual GRAMMY® Awards

Best Spoken Word Poetry Album

Words For Days Vol. 1. Mad Skillz

67th Annual GRAMMY® Awards

Best Spoken Word Or Non-musical Album

Last Sundays In Plains: A Centennial Celebration. Jimmy Carter

67th Annual GRAMMY® Awards

Best Spoken Word Poetry Album

The Heart, The Mind, The Soul. Tank And The Bangas

66th Annual GRAMMY® Awards

Best Spoken Word Or Non-musical Album

The Light We Carry: Overcoming In Uncertain Times. Michelle Obama

66th Annual GRAMMY® Awards

Best Spoken Word Poetry Album

The Light Inside. J. Ivy

65th Annual GRAMMY® Awards

Best Spoken Word Or Non-musical Album

Finding Me. Viola Davis

65th Annual GRAMMY® Awards

Best Spoken Word Poetry Album

The Poet Who Sat By The Door. J. Ivy

64th Annual GRAMMY® Awards

Best Spoken Word Or Non-musical Album

Carry On: Reflections For A New Generation From John Lewis. Don Cheadle

63rd Annual GRAMMY® Awards

Best Spoken Word Or Non-musical Album

Blowout: Corrupted Democracy, Rogue State Russia, And The Richest, Most Destructive Industry On Earth. Rachel Maddow

About Spoken Word

Music Facts: Spoken Word

The GRAMMY for Best Spoken Word Album has been awarded since the GRAMMY Awards first began in 1959; however, the category has undergone several minor name changes throughout the decades.
Spoken word poetry, audiobooks, storytelling, non-musical dramas, sermons, narrations with or without music collaboration or accompaniment, and instructional recordings are eligible for the Best Spoken Word Album GRAMMY.
John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., Joan Baez, George Takei, and Carrie Fisher have all won the GRAMMY for Best Spoken Word Album.

Grammy Awards for Spoken Word

Year	Category	Winner	Work	Actions
2026	Best Spoken Word Or Non-musical Album	Dalai Lama	Meditations: The Reflections Of His Holiness The Dalai Lama	All Nominees
2026	Best Spoken Word Poetry Album	Mad Skillz	Words For Days Vol. 1	All Nominees
2025	Best Spoken Word Or Non-musical Album	Jimmy Carter	Last Sundays In Plains: A Centennial Celebration	All Nominees
2025	Best Spoken Word Poetry Album	Tank And The Bangas	The Heart, The Mind, The Soul	All Nominees
2024	Best Spoken Word Or Non-musical Album	Michelle Obama	The Light We Carry: Overcoming In Uncertain Times	All Nominees
2024	Best Spoken Word Poetry Album	J. Ivy	The Light Inside	All Nominees
2023	Best Spoken Word Or Non-musical Album	Viola Davis	Finding Me	All Nominees
2023	Best Spoken Word Poetry Album	J. Ivy	The Poet Who Sat By The Door	All Nominees
2022	Best Spoken Word Or Non-musical Album	Don Cheadle	Carry On: Reflections For A New Generation From John Lewis	All Nominees
2021	Best Spoken Word Or Non-musical Album	Rachel Maddow	Blowout: Corrupted Democracy, Rogue State Russia, And The Richest, Most Destructive Industry On Earth	All Nominees
2020	Best Spoken Word Or Non-musical Album	Michelle Obama	Becoming	All Nominees
2019	Best Spoken Word Or Non-musical Album	Jimmy Carter	Faith - A Journey For All	All Nominees
2018	Best Spoken Word Or Non-musical Album	Carrie Fisher	The Princess Diarist	All Nominees
2017	Best Spoken Word Or Non-musical Album	Carol Burnett	In Such Good Company: Eleven Years Of Laughter, Mayhem, And Fun In The Sandbox	All Nominees
2016	Best Spoken Word Or Non-musical Album	Jimmy Carter	A Full Life: Reflections at Ninety	All Nominees
2015	Best Spoken Word Or Non-musical Album	Joan Rivers	Diary Of A Mad Diva	All Nominees
2014	Best Spoken Word Or Non-musical Album	Stephen Colbert	America Again: Re-becoming The Greatness We Never Weren't	All Nominees
2013	Best Spoken Word Or Non-musical Album	Janis Ian	Society's Child: My Autobiography	All Nominees
2012	Best Spoken Word Or Non-musical Album	Betty White	If You Ask Me (And Of Course You Won't)	All Nominees
2011	Best Spoken Word Or Non-musical Album	Jon Stewart	The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Presents Earth (The Audiobook)	All Nominees
2010	Best Spoken Word Or Non-musical Album	Michael J. Fox	Always Looking Up	All Nominees
2009	Best Spoken Word Or Non-musical Album	Beau Bridges, Cynthia Nixon, Blair Underwood	An Inconvenient Truth (Al Gore)	All Nominees
2008	Best Spoken Word Or Non-musical Album	Barack Obama	The Audacity Of Hope: Thoughts On Reclaiming The American Dream	All Nominees
2007	Best Spoken Word Or Non-musical Album	Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee	With Ossie And Ruby: In This Life Together	All Nominees
2007	Best Spoken Word Or Non-musical Album	Jimmy Carter	Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis	All Nominees
2006	Best Spoken Word Or Non-musical Album	Barack Obama	Dreams From My Father (Senator Barack Obama)	All Nominees
2005	Best Spoken Word Or Non-musical Album	Bill Clinton	My Life	All Nominees
2004	Best Spoken Word Or Non-musical Album	Al Franken	Lies And The Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair And Balanced Look At The Right (Al Franken)	All Nominees
2003	Best Spoken Word Or Non-musical Album	Maya Angelou	A Song Flung Up To Heaven	All Nominees
2002	Best Spoken Word Or Non-musical Album	Quincy Jones	Q - The Autobiography Of Quincy Jones	All Nominees
2001	Best Spoken Word Or Non-musical Album	Sidney Poitier	The Measure Of A Man	All Nominees
2000	Best Spoken Word Or Non-musical Album	LeVar Burton	The Autobiography Of Martin Luther King, Jr.	All Nominees
1999	Best Spoken Word Or Non-musical Album	Christopher Reeve	Still Me	All Nominees
1998	Best Spoken Word Or Non-musical Album	Charles Kuralt	Charles Kuralt's Spring	All Nominees
1997	Best Spoken Word Or Non-musical Album	Hillary Rodham Clinton	It Takes A Village	All Nominees
1996	Best Spoken Word Or Non-musical Album	Maya Angelou	Phenomenal Woman	All Nominees
1995	Best Spoken Word Or Non-musical Album	Henry Rollins	Get In The Van - On The Road With Black Flag	All Nominees
1994	Best Spoken Word Or Non-musical Album	Maya Angelou	On The Pulse Of Morning	All Nominees
1993	Best Spoken Word Or Non-musical Album	Earvin "Magic" Johnson, Robert O'Keefe	What You Can Do To Avoid AIDS	All Nominees
1992	Best Spoken Word Or Non-musical Album	Ken Burns	The Civil War	All Nominees
1991	Best Spoken Word Or Non-musical Album	George Burns	Gracie - A Love Story	All Nominees
1990	Best Spoken Word Or Non-musical Album	Gilda Radner	It's Always Something	All Nominees
1989	Best Spoken Word Or Non-musical Album	Jesse L. Jackson	Speech By Rev. Jesse Jackson	All Nominees
1988	Best Spoken Word Or Non-musical Album	Garrison Keillor	Lake Wobegon Days	All Nominees
1987	Best Spoken Word Or Non-musical Album	Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison, Sam Phillips, Rick Nelson, Chips Moman	Interviews From The Class Of '55 Recording Sessions	All Nominees
1986	Best Spoken Word Or Non-musical Album	(Original Broadway Cast)	Ma Rainey's Black Bottom	All Nominees
1985	Best Spoken Word Or Non-musical Album	Ben Kingsley	The Words Of Gandhi	All Nominees
1984	Best Spoken Word Or Non-musical Album	William Warfield	Copland: A Lincoln Portrait	All Nominees
1983	Best Spoken Word Or Non-musical Album	(Various Artists)	Raiders Of The Lost Ark - The Movie On Record	All Nominees
1982	Best Spoken Word Or Non-musical Album	Orson Welles	Donovan's Brain	All Nominees
1981	Best Spoken Word Or Non-musical Album	Pat Carroll	Gertrude Stein, Gertrude Stein, Gertrude Stein	All Nominees
1980	Best Spoken Word Or Non-musical Album	John Gielgud	Ages Of Man - Readings From Shakespeare	All Nominees
1979	Best Spoken Word Or Non-musical Album	Orson Welles	Citizen Kane	All Nominees
1978	Best Spoken Word Or Non-musical Album	Julie Harris	The Belle Of Amherst	All Nominees
1977	Best Spoken Word Or Non-musical Album	Helen Hayes, Orson Welles, Henry Fonda, James Earl Jones	Great American Documents	All Nominees
1976	Best Spoken Word Or Non-musical Album	James Whitmore	Give 'Em Hell Harry	All Nominees
1975	Best Spoken Word Or Non-musical Album	Dudley Moore, Peter Cook	Good Evening	All Nominees
1974	Best Spoken Word Or Non-musical Album	Richard Harris	Jonathan Livingston Seagull	All Nominees
1973	Best Spoken Word Or Non-musical Album	(Original Cast)	Lenny	All Nominees
1972	Best Spoken Word Or Non-musical Album	Les Crane	Desiderata	All Nominees
1971	Best Spoken Word Or Non-musical Album	Martin Luther King Jr.	Why I Oppose The War In Vietnam	All Nominees
1970	Best Spoken Word Or Non-musical Album	Art Linkletter, Diane Linkletter	We Love You Call Collect	All Nominees
1969	Best Spoken Word Or Non-musical Album	Rod McKuen	Lonesome Cities	All Nominees
1968	Best Spoken Word Or Non-musical Album	Everett M. Dirksen	Gallant Men	All Nominees
1967	Best Spoken Word Or Non-musical Album	Edward R. Murrow	Edward R. Murrow - A Reporter Remembers Vol. I The War Years	All Nominees
1966	Best Spoken Word Or Non-musical Album	(John F. Kennedy)	John F. Kennedy - As We Remember Him	All Nominees
1965	Best Spoken Word Or Non-musical Album	That Was The Week That Was (Cast)	BBC Tribute To John F. Kennedy	All Nominees
1964	Best Spoken Word Or Non-musical Album	(Uta Hagen, Arthur Hill, George Grizzard & Melinda Dillon)	Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?	All Nominees
1963	Best Spoken Word Or Non-musical Album	Charles Laughton	The Story-Teller: A Session With Charles Laughton	All Nominees
1962	Best Spoken Word Or Non-musical Album	Leonard Bernstein	Humor In Music	All Nominees
1961	Best Spoken Word Or Non-musical Album	(Franklin Delano Roosevelt)	FDR Speaks	All Nominees
1960	Best Spoken Word Or Non-musical Album	Carl Sandburg	A Lincoln Portrait	All Nominees
1959	Best Spoken Word Or Non-musical Album	Stan Freberg	The Best Of The Stan Freberg Shows	All Nominees