Think you know Stephen King? Well, sure. He's the Master of Horror, author of The Shining and Carrie, which turned 50 in 2024. Also, he's a sharp, cogent writer responsible for the Shawshank Redemption and Stand By Me.

I'm Meg Wallitzer. Stay with me for Selected Shorts as we celebrate two very different sides of King.

You're listening to Selected Shorts where our greatest actors transport us through the magic of fiction.

One short story at a time.

Stephen King holds a place in the popular imagination that few contemporary writers can rival.

First and foremost, he's the master of horror. The guy whose dog-eared paperback you eagerly snatched from your

parents' bookshelf in no small part because they warned you against it. Maybe your prohibited

title was The Shining, It, or Pet Cemetery. Whatever it was, you read it at night, by flashlight,

under the covers, and you scared yourself silly.

And the important thing about scaring yourself silly is that silly is at the end of that phrase.

You want to do it. You like it. It's a strange combination of high anxiety and deep pleasure,

and it's hard to describe why we love it, but we do.

Stephen King understands that combination better than any writer I can think of,

and I have a hunch that maybe he feels it too when he's writing.

I imagine it is possible to type at a computer or even write by longhand

while the hair on the back of your neck is standing up.

Even if you haven't read one of his books, King is still kind of inescapable.

Dozens of his titles have been adapted for film or television, sometimes two or more, if you count reboots,

and 2024 marked the 50th anniversary of the publication of Carrie, his terrifying and wildly creative debut novel.

The anniversary gave those of us at shorts a chance to celebrate Carrie and King himself.

Of course, our show is about lifting short stories from the page into a live context,

which is why we wanted to focus on King, the writer,

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