Carrie Fisher Wins First Grammy – Just Over a Year After Her Death

Fisher won for the audio book version of her memoir “The Princess Diarist,” her second spoken word Grammy nomination

The Last Jedi Carrie Fisher
Disney/Lucasfilm

Carrie Fisher was honored with her first Grammy Sunday, just over a year after her death.

Fisher posthumously won the award for best spoken word album at the 60th Annual Grammy Awards, which took place at Madison Square Garden in New York. She won for the audio book version of her 2016 book, “The Princess Diarist,” a memoir she wrote chronicling her experiences playing Princess Leia Organa in the original “Star Wars.”

It’s the second time Fisher was nominated for the Grammy, but her first win. She previously was nominated for the audio book version of her memoir “Wishful Drinking,” which was published in 2008.

Fisher was in good company in the spoken word category at the Grammys. She beat out Bruce Springsteen, songwriter Shelly Peiken, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, actor Mark Ruffalo, and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders to win the award.

Though Fisher was best known for her role in the “Star Wars” films — she played Leia throughout the original trilogy, then reprised the role 32 years later in “The Force Awakens” — she was also successful writer. She wrote three memoirs, “The Princess Diarist,” “Wishful Drinking” and “Shockaholic,” and four novels: “Postcards From the Edge,” “Surrender the Pink,” “Delusions of Grandma” and “The Best Awful There Is.”

Fisher also was known in Hollywood as a writer and script doctor. She rewrote many of her lines as Princess Leia in the original “Star Wars” and contributed greatly to the writing for the character throughout the series. “The Last Jedi” director Rian Johnson said Fisher contributed greatly to that film’s script as well, and that Fisher came up with Leia’s best, most affecting lines in the film.

Fisher died in December 2016, four days after she suffered cardiac arrest while on a flight from London to Los Angeles. The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner concluded that “sleep apnea and other undetermined factors” contributed to her death.

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