Audible Studios Recognized with Grammy Nomination for Patience and Sarah

Best Spoken Word Album Nominee Showcases Captivating Performances by
Janis Ian and Jean Smart

NEWARK, N.J.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Audible Studios, a production arm of Audible.com, the world’s leading
provider of digital spoken-word entertainment, today received its third
Grammy nomination in the Best Spoken Word Album category, for the
audiobook Patience and Sarah. Written by Isabel Miller, the
recording features breathtaking performances by Grammy Award-winning
singer-songwriter Janis Ian and Emmy Award-winning actress Jean Smart.

Ian brought the project to Audible Studios, complete with her vision for
two voices on the program.

Patience and Sarah is a meticulously researched historical novel
that quickly became a classic of LGBT literature when it was
self-published in 1969, garnering so much attention that the American
Library Association created its first Stonewall Award specifically for
the title in 1971. This is the first time the book has ever been brought
to life in audio. Ian and Smart perform the title characters in this
dual-point-of-view love story about two young women whose romantic bond
does not sit well with the puritanical New England farming community in
which they live.

“I came across Patience and Sarah while I was staying with a
friend in Philadelphia in 1972 and it opened a world to me,” said Ian,
who won the Best Spoken Word Album Grammy in 2013 for her performance of
her own memoir, Society’s Child. “It was the first time I’d read
a love story starring two women that had a happy ending. And it was
beautifully written! I’m honored that Audible has given me the
opportunity to breathe new life into this classic, and getting a Grammy
nomination from my peers and colleagues draws even more attention to
this story. The timing is right, politically and socially, for this
gorgeous book to make its way back into the limelight.”

“We are thrilled that yet another bravura performance by Janis Ian has
been recognized with a Grammy nomination,” said Audible EVP and
Publisher Beth Anderson. “And this time with Jean Smart! The combination
of such skilled performers and such a beautiful and important text
create an incredibly moving listening experience that is all the more
significant in its historical and social context. Janis is an undeniable
force in the music industry, and we are delighted we were able to
convince her to come back to audio and lend her considerable talents to
another tour-de-force audiobook performance.”

This is Janis Ian’s tenth Grammy nomination. She has been nominated in
eight categories stretched over almost five decades, and is a three-time
winner, most recently for the Audible Studios production of Society’s
Child. Ian has also been inducted into the Grammy Hall of
Fame on two separate occasions. This is the first Grammy nomination for
Jean Smart, who has won three Emmys for her roles as Lorna Gardener in Frasier
and Regina Newley in Samantha Who?

In addition to Ian and Smart, among the acclaimed performers who have
narrated works of literature for Audible are Jesse Eisenberg, Dan
Stevens, James Franco, Kate Winslet and Tim Robbins. In 2013, Audible
Studios won its first Grammy Award, for Society’s Child, and also
won the Audie Award for Audiobook of the Year, for Colin Firth’s
performance of Graham Greene’s The End of the Affair. Audible
Studios also garnered a Grammy nomination in the Best Spoken Word Album
category in 2010 for The Woody Allen Collection.

Audible, the world’s largest seller and producer of downloadable
audiobooks and other spoken-word content, invented and commercialized
the first digital audio player in 1997, and has since been at the
forefront of the explosively growing audiobook download segment. In
2014, listeners around the world downloaded 1.2 billion hours of audio
from Audible.com outlets; Audible members downloaded an average of more
than 17 books over the course of the year. Two thirds of new Audible
members are first-time audiobook buyers.

ABOUT AUDIBLE, INC.

Audible, Inc., an Amazon.com,
Inc. subsidiary (NASDAQ:AMZN), is the leading provider of premium
digital spoken audio information and entertainment, offering customers a
new way to enhance and enrich their lives every day. Audible was created
to unleash the emotive music in language and the habituating power and
utility of verbal expression. Audible content includes more than 250,000
audio programs from leading audiobook publishers, broadcasters,
entertainers, magazine and newspaper publishers, and business
information providers. Audible is also the preeminent provider of
spoken-word audio products for Apple’s iTunes Store.

Contacts

Audible.com
Esther Bochner, 973-820-0781
bochnere@audible.com