Ali Celebrates His First Audie Nomination

Ali is officially a first-time Audie finalist/nominee. He’s been nominated for Best Ensemble Performance at the 31st annual Audie Awards, presented by the Audio Publishers Association (APA), which recognizes distinction in audiobooks and spoken-word entertainment. This year saw a record-breaking 2,300 entries, which makes the nomination feel a little like finding out your short film made it through Sundance… except it happened in a recording booth. The Ensemble Performance category is brand new this year (alongside Adaptation/Original Work, New Voice Award, and Production and Sound Design), which makes the recognition all the more meaningful.

The nomination is for the audiobook of A Bird in the Air Means We Can Still Breathe by Mahogany L. Browne, a mixed prose-poetry novel that follows a group of New York City teenagers navigating love, loss, isolation, and unexpected connection during the pandemic. Ali narrates Pops, a Yemeni bodega worker with a big heart and a watchful eye, quietly holding space for his community while navigating the challenges of a world brought to its knees by COVID. The book weaves together multiple voices, which makes this ensemble nomination feel especially right. It truly is a chorus of lived-in, deeply human performances.

Ali is deeply grateful to Penguin Random House Audio for their continued trust in him (shoutout to their Narrator Mentorship program for changing his trajectory entirely), to director Josie Kurz for her steady, insightful guidance in the booth, and to producers Karen Dziekonski and Juan Garcia Ticoulat for steering the ship. Most of all, he shares this recognition with a cast of phenomenal actors who brought such care and specificity to their roles. It takes a village. Sometimes it takes a bodega, too.

The 2026 winners will be announced at the Audie Awards Ceremony at Pier 60 in NYC on Monday, March 2 from 4:00-9:30pm ET. In the meantime, Ali will be over here, pretending to be calm about it. And encouraging you to give the book a listen on your favorite audiobook streamer/provider.