Viola Davis won the Grammy Award for best audio book, narration, and storytelling recording for her memoir, Finding Me, on Sunday evening.
With the win, Davis became the latest person to earn “EGOT” status, meaning that she has won the Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony awards. The last artist to achieve the EGOT was actor and singer Jennifer Hudson, who completed the superfecta last year.
Davis’ memoir was published last year by HarperOne. A critic for Kirkus praised the book as “an unvarnished chronicle of hard-won, well-earned success.” Kirkus named the audiobook edition one of its favorite audiobooks of 2022.
In her acceptance speech for the Grammy, Davis said, “I wrote this book to honor the 6-year-old Viola, to honor her life, her joy, her trauma, everything. And it has just been such a journey.”
J. Ivy won the first-ever Grammy for best spoken word poetry album for The Poet Who Sat by the Door, his sixth album. Ivy, a Recording Academy trustee, helped create the new category, NPR reports.
“I’ve been dreaming about this so long,” Ivy said in his acceptance speech. “What dream is this, that’s all I keep asking.”
As music started to play, signaling that his time was about to end, Ivy thanked his hometown of Chicago, and said, “Let it be known that this is for the poets, y’all!”
Michael Schaub, a journalist and regular contributor to NPR, lives near Austin, Texas.
