The acclaimed actress’ audiobook narration of ‘Poetry Says It Better’ could earn her Grammy nomination. Burstyn speaks with PEOPLE about the milestone

NEED TO KNOW

• Acclaimed actress Ellen Burstyn, 93, could win a Grammy for the audiobook narration of her book Poetry Says It Better
• If Burstyn won, she would become the oldest person to achieve EGOT status
• “I’m really quite excited about the possibility,” Burstyn tells PEOPLE in an exclusive interview

One of Ellen Burstyn’s latest projects could make her an EGOT winner in her 90s — and it’s one that some fans may not expect.

The actress turned her sights to literature this year with a new book. Poetry Says It Better, published in April by HarperOne, is a curated collection of some of Burstyn’s favorite poems. Burstyn, 93, first discovered poetry in high school and it’s been a mainstay of her life ever since.

“I’ve been very encouraged by some of the messages of poems,” the actress tells PEOPLE. “When I’ve been at sea about something, I’ll read a poem that I know has a boost in it for me and an assurance … I feel like poets say the richness of words deeper and better than just plain talk.”

Burstyn even carries a “poetry pack”— a straw carrier she bought in a foreign country decades ago, where she keeps cards with typed poems on them.

“I’ve memorized most of them, but sometimes when I want to recite them, I like pulling them out, written just in case I forget any line,” she says. “They’re just part of what goes in my handbag every day.”

Poetry Says It Better honors some of the most influential poets in Burstyn’s life, like Edna St. Vincent Millay, who the actress says was her “first guide” to the genre. But it was the late Mary Oliver who left the deepest imprint.

“Mary Oliver is such a great poet that, if you’ve got her in your heart, you really don’t need any other poets,” Burstyn says. “She says it all, as far as I’m concerned. I just love her view of the world and her way to express it.”

Burstyn narrated the Poetry Says It Better audiobook herself. She is eligible to receive a Grammy nomination for the project, in the Best Audiobook, Narration and Storytelling Recording category. If Burstyn were to win, she would achieve EGOT status — an individual who has received an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony Award. Burstyn would be the oldest person to receive the honor, as well as only the seventh woman in history.

“I’m really quite excited about the possibility,” she says. “I don’t know if I have any chance in the world, if my book of recorded poems can stand up for an award. I hope so. But the idea of being an EGOT is somehow like a gift from I don’t know who. It’s lovely.”

A six-time Oscar nominee, it was Burstyn’s role as Alice Hyatt in 1974’s Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore that earned her the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1975. That same year, she also won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for her role as Doris in Same Time, Next Year on Broadway. Burstyn has two Primetime Emmys for roles on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Political Animals.

Looking back, Burstyn says that Alice Hyatt remains one of her most influential parts.

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“That was when I realized that movies were depicting women in a way that I didn’t really recognize as myself or my friends or, very often, single mothers raising their child and earning a living and living their own lives,” she says. “Bringing that concept to Warner Brothers and having them respond to it really changed — I’ve been told by many people — the way women were depicted in film and seen as whole people with whole lives, not just assistant people. That was a real turning point for me.”

There are other roles from throughout her career that Burstyn wishes got more recognition, like the 1980 film Resurrection. Burstyn played Edna Mae McCauley, who receives healing powers after a tragic accident. She was inspired to join the project after her own experience caring for her son, after he had an accident in London that resulted in a serious injury. At the suggestion of a spiritual teacher, Burstyn took him to a healer.

“I wanted to make a film about somebody who had healing abilities,” Burstyn said. She even hired a real-life healer, who worked on-set with the crew. “Somehow, the film didn’t quite get promoted as a film about healing, but more like it was science fiction … I was hoping that that would get seen more than it did.”

Even so, Burstyn is still looking forward to new opportunities in her ninth decade. She also has sound advice for young professionals in the industry.

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“You can’t just sit around saying, ‘Well, I need an agent,’ or, ‘I need this’ and wait for somebody to bless you with a job,” she says. “You have to make your own work so you have something to show.”

It’s something that Burstyn has been doing her entire career. A potential EGOT is just the cherry on top.

“If it happens, it’s a great blessing for me, and I’ll be very grateful for it,” she says. “You’ll just have to wait to see.”

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