Alexander Scourby Narrator of the Year Awards

The American Foundation for the Blind and Talking Book Productions celebrates the Alexander Scourby Narrator of the Year Awards on Monday, September 18, 2006.

A warm congratulations to three outstanding audio book narrators.

2005 Awardees

L.J. Ganser
Fiction
Under the Moons of Mars

Peter Johnson
Nonfiction
Discourse on Free Will

Yolande Bavan
Multicultural Nonfiction
The Upanishads

Established in 1986, the Scourby Awards honor excellence in the narration of Talking Books and are named after the late Alexander Scourby, one of the most admired narrators in the history of the Talking Books program. Scourby's reputation and recordings live on today. In April 2005, his recording of the King James version of the Bible from 1966 was entered into the prestigious National Recording Registry.

The Talking Books program originated in 1933 at AFB with the invention of the long-playing phonograph record and is now administered by the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS) of the Library of Congress. Over the years, the program has provided recorded literature to over 750,000 blind, visually impaired, and physically disabled Americans. The American Foundation for the Blind's Talking Book Productions (TBP) is the longest running producer of Talking Books and has recorded tens of thousands of titles over the last 70 years.

Traditionally, narrators from several production facilities have been considered for the Scourby Awards and then honored at a live ceremony in New York City. In 2004, the awards ceremony became a virtual event enabling more people from across the country to "attend" the event, vote for their favorite narrator, and listen to the winning selections online.

In 2005, AFB will be modifying the selection process and awarding narrators who record at our facility. The audio clips from these selected readings will be available online at www.afb.org/scourby.asp. Check back soon for more details.

If you have any questions, please e-mail us at communications@afb.net.