Judith Ivey’s main focus is the stage and screen work that has won her Tony, Drama Desk, Emmy, and Obie Awards, yet she admits to a strong attraction for audiobooks—“a medium that demands a creative process unlike others,” she says. And, recently, Judith has added Earphones Awards to her other accolades. The Southern women and their daughters in Rebecca Wells’s THE DIVINE SECRETS OF THE YA-YA SISTERHOOD and LITTLE ALTARS EVERYWHERE brought Judith an astounding array of characters and splendid opportunities for Louisiana accents. Mississippi was the setting for Deborah Wiles’s LOVE, RUBY LAVENDER, and Judith again portrayed several generations and elicited the essence of a small town with her narrative. Another favorite children’s title is MY LOUISIANA SKY by Kimberly Willis Holt. Judith’s Texas roots served her well when she read Lady Bird Johnson’s journals in the dual narration with Michael Beschloss in REACHING FOR GLORY. Another rave for her performance—”as complex as a Mozart flute quartet”—came in our review of THE WORLD BELOW by Sue Miller. --2002 Narrator Yearbook

Judith Ivey