The Norman Corwin Award for Excellence in Audio Theatre
Each year, the National Audio Theatre Festival, Inc. honors an audio dramatist or a group of audio dramatists who have made significant contributions toward furthering the medium of audio theatre in the United States with the presentation of the Norman Corwin Award for Excellence in Audio Theatre.   
- This is the only award of its kind in the United States.
- Nominations for the 2021 Award can be made until April 2, 2021.   

The 2020 Norman Corwin Awards
The 2020 Norman Corwin Award for Excellence in Audio Theatre goes to the Atlanta Radio Theater Company.  
 
In addition to naming an overall recipient of the Award in 2020, the National Audio Theatre Festival also presented a Norman Corwin Legacy Award to William "Bill" Dufris.  

Norman Corwin
The Norman Corwin Award was named for legendary director, producer and scriptwriter, who was the first recipient of the prize, on the occasion of his 100th birthday in 2010.   
 
Corwin created many great audio productions in the time from the 1930s up until his very last years. Find more about Norman Corwin and his life  here.
 
Corwin's life work was the subject of a 1995 documentary by Mary Beth Kirchner, aired over National Public Radio. 
 
Corwin was a careful craftsman in his work as an audio dramatist, as well as a deeply caring individual who tried to enrich the world through his work.  It is for this reason that the creators of the Norman Corwin Award chose to honor his name in this way.  The initial grant to endow the Award was made by Helen Engelhardt.

Note about the trophy itself:
Norman was delighted and touched by the creation of this Award. He told us that the award itself was “beautiful,” and especially appreciated the significance of the award  base.  The stone base of the Norman Corwin Award was created to symbolize Norman's creative spirit, and to honor his lifelong hobby of mineralogy. It comes from the very heart of America, because Norman's love for our country shone throughout his work. It's plain, ordinary limestone – but it's cut from the same quarry which provided stone for the United States Capitol Building, the National Cathedral, and many important buildings in Universities and great cities throughout the country. Throughout his life, Norman Corwin celebrated the idea that the greatest glories of America, and the greatest things in human life, come from the common bedrock of humanity – just as the greatest buildings can come from the most common stone. The base has been carved every year by James Miller, a stonecarver at the Bybee Stone Company, Elletsville, Indiana.