Rachel Maddow won the Best Spoken Word Album award at the Grammys on Sunday for the audiobook version of her book Blowout: Corrupted Democracy, Rogue State Russia, and the Richest, Most Destructive Industry on Earth.
Maddow’s book is a look at the oil industry from Russia to Oklahoma. In a starred review, a critic for Kirkus wrote of the book, “Expect a tweetstorm as Maddow’s indictment of a corrupt industry finds readers—and it deserves many.”
Maddow beat out four other finalists for the award: Meryl Streep for Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White, Ken Jennings for The Answer Is... by Alex Trebek, Ronan Farrow for his book Catch and Kill, and musician Flea for his memoir, Acid for the Children.
In an appearance on The Ellen Show last month, Maddow played down her chances of winning the award.
“It’s a really good news, bad news sort of thing,” she said. “The good news is you’ve been nominated for a Grammy. The bad news is Meryl Streep is also nominated in the same category. It at least takes away the suspense. I don’t have to worry that there’s any threat of winning.”
The Spoken Word Grammy frequently goes to authors for narration of their audiobooks. Previous winners have included Michelle Obama for Becoming, Carrie Fisher for The Princess Diarist, and Michael J. Fox for Always Looking Up.
Michael Schaub is a Texas-based journalist and regular contributor to NPR.
