Coretta Scott King, widow of the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. died. A wealth of children’s literature has been recognized through the American Library Association’s (ALA) Coretta Scott King award. Established in 1969 to honor authors, the awards were expanded ten years later to showcase illustrators. Many of the award-winning books are available on audio. A Day of Tears: A Novel in Dialogue by Julius Lester, the fictionalized account of America’s largest slave auction held in Savannah in 1859, was adapted to audio by Recorded Books as a wonderful multi-voiced production.

U.S. Senator Barack Obama (D-Ill.) won the 2006 Grammy Award in the Spoken Word category for the performance of his autobiography, Dreams of My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance. Amid a surge in his personal popularity and speculation regarding a possible run for the presidency, Sen. Obama’s second book, The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American was released in the fall of 2006. The senator narrated the abridged version of the book which also includes his speech before the 2004 Democratic National Convention from which the title is taken. Both are available on Random House Audio.

Upstate, Kalisha Buckhanon’s debut novel, won the APA’s 2006 Audie Award for Literary Fiction (Audio Renaissance). Narrators Heather Simms and Chadwick Boseman used the author’s epistolary form to capture the essence of the star-crossed lovers whose story is told through ten years of correspondence.

Ossie and Ruby: In This Life Together by Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee was published in 1998 to coincide with their 50^th wedding anniversary. The audio version of their joint memoir was released in 2006 by Hatchette Audio, and was nominated at the end of the year for the 2007 Grammy Award in the Spoken Word category.

Author Beverly Jenkins won the 2006 Vivian Stephens Award for Career Achievement for Excellence in Romance Writing at Romance Slam Jam in Shreveport LA. Romance Slam Jam is the largest African-American genre-specific literary event for published and aspiring authors and readers. Jenkins’ Winds of the Storm, narrated by Kevin R. Free was released by Recorded Books.

The March by E.L. Doctorow won the National Book Critics Circle Award and the PEN/Faulkner, and is a finalist for the National Book Award. Actor Joe Morton narrates the audio version of Doctorow’s account of Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman’s march through Georgia and the Carolinas. (Random House Audio)

A New York Times survey selected Toni Morrison’s Beloved as "the best work of American fiction published in the last 25 years. The author read the audio version of her historic work on Random House Audio. A Time magazine list of the most influential books included Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God (the Audie-award winning version was read by Ruby Dee for Harper Audio) and Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man (read on Random House Audio by Joe Morton.)

The deaths of authors Bebe Moore Campbell and Octavia Butler shocked the literary world. Many of Campbell’s books are available on audio. Ms. Campbell read an abridged version of her book Brothers and Sisters (Audio Renaissance), and the unabridged version of What You Owe Me (Recorded Books) includes an interview with the author. Ms. Butler’s last novel, Fledgling, was narrated by Tracey Leigh and is available on BBC America Audiobooks. Also available from Recorded Books are Kindred (narrated by Kim Staunton), Parable of the Sower (narrated by the late Lynne Thigpen), and a multi-voiced recording of Parable of the Talents.

Cedric the Entertainer, who gave voice to Golly the Goose in the film version of E. B. White’s Charlotte’s Web, was selected to launch the American Library Association’s Listen™ poster series which underscores the importance and availability of audio materials in the nation’s libraries.

The late Pulitzer-Prize winning poet Gwendolyn Brooks read 27 of her best poems in Caedmon’s new The Gwendolyn Brooks Collection.

Harlequin’s Red Dress Inc. imprint launches the Sophie Katz mystery series by Kyra Davis. Like its author, Sophie is a half-black, half-Jewish writer living in San Francisco. In the debut novel, Sex, Drugs and a Double Latte, someone is stalking Sophie using the plot of one of her mysteries as their game plan. The sequel, Passion, Betrayal and Killer Highlights, continues Sophie’s story. Both books are read by Gabra Zackman are only available via audible.com.

Giles Fodden’s The Last King of Scotland, a story about former Ugandan dictator Idi Amin Dada was made into a motion picture starring Forest Whittaker. The audiobook, produced by Blackstone Audio, was narrated by Mirron E. Willis (Blackstone Audio).

Will Smith and his son Jaden starred in the biopic, The Pursuit of Happyness; Andre Blake narrated the audio version for Harper Audio.

Maya Angelou’s Celebrations on Random House which includes memorial tributes to the late Barry White and Luther Vandross, "On the Pulse of Morning" written for Bill Clinton’s 1993 inauguration and a birthday wishes to Oprah was released.

On the Oprah track: Pearl Cleage’s poetic anthem, "We Speak Your Names," written for the 2005 Legends’ Ball was released on audio by Blackstone Audio. Oprah satellite Dr. Robin L. Smith reads portions of her book, Lies at the Altar: The Truth About Great Marriages. Hatchett Audio re-released the talk show diva herself narrating White Oleander by Janet Fitch, a 1999 Oprah Book Club™ pick.

Actor Peter Jay Fernandez reprised his role as Alex Cross in Cross, the latest audio installment of James Patterson’s popular suspense series on Hatchette Audio.