Terence Ang’s AI-narrated poetry audiobook wins NYC Big Book Award

Singaporean author and stroke survivor Terence Ang won the NYC Big Book Award in Audiobook: Poetry/Memoir for Brokenness Becomes Beautiful: Inspiring Pieces Of Poetry. The recognition spotlights how AI voice-cloning can help creators with aphasia narrate their own work in a voice tied to their identity.

Why it matters: - Terence Ang’s win puts a spotlight on how AI voice technology can expand access to storytelling for creators living with aphasia. - The award also gives wider visibility to an audiobook format that blends poetry, memoir and assistive tech. - Ang’s project shows one path for authors who can no longer narrate conventionally after a stroke.

What happened: - The NYC Big Book Award named Brokenness Becomes Beautiful: Inspiring Pieces Of Poetry by Terence Ang the winner in the Audiobook: Poetry/Memoir category. - The award honors overall excellence and is judged by experts from publishing, bookselling, librarianship and professional copywriting. - Ang is a Singaporean author, artist, stroke survivor and aphasia advocate. - Ang suffered a stroke in 2020 and later developed aphasia.

The details: - Brokenness Becomes Beautiful is narrated with an AI-generated digital recreation of Ang’s own voice. - Ang used AI voice-cloning technology after aphasia made traditional audiobook narration difficult. - The digital voice was built from recordings of Ang’s speech made after his stroke. - The poetry collection draws on Ang’s experiences with stroke, aphasia, identity, healing and rebuilding a life after major change. - Aphasia is an acquired language disorder caused by brain injury. - Aphasia can affect speaking, understanding, reading and writing. - Aphasia does not by itself mean a loss of intelligence or the ability to think. - The audiobook is believed to be among the first poetry collections narrated by an author with aphasia through an AI-generated version of the author’s own voice.

Between the lines: - The recognition suggests the book industry is beginning to reward not just content, but also the accessibility and production methods behind a work. - Ang’s use of AI voice recreation turns a communication limitation into part of the artistic process. - The award may help normalize AI-assisted narration as a legitimate creative tool rather than only a technical workaround. - NYC Big Book Award submissions came from around the world, including authors and publishers in the United States, Australia, Canada, Dubai, England, France, Ghana, Greece, New Zealand, Singapore, Sweden, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom. - Entries also represented cities including Auckland, Frankfurt, Hollywood, Johannesburg, New York City, Philadelphia, Sydney and West Palm Beach. - Participating publishers included Beacon Press, Berrett-Koehler, Casemate, Edinburgh University Press, Forbes Books, Kiplinger Books, NYU Press, Palgrave Macmillan, Penguin Random House, Rizzoli, Routledge, The White House Historical Association, University of California Press and Wiley. - Awards sponsor Gabby Olczak said the program has “an amazing list of authors from around the globe” and said she is excited to share the books with a worldwide readership.

What’s next: - NYC Big Book Award winners are announced every fall. - The awards dinner is scheduled for April 10, 2027, at the BookCAMP event on April 9-10, 2027. - Recipients from both the NYC Big Book and Independent Press Award programs will receive awards on stage at that event. - More information is available through the NYC Big Book Award website, the awards dinner page, BookCAMP and the Independent Press Award.

The bottom line: - Ang’s award marks a notable intersection of disability, identity and AI-powered narration in contemporary publishing.