Start gifting
Libro.fm for Business
Start a membership, get two free audiobooks
Almost ready!
In order to save audiobooks to your Wish List you must be signed in to your account.
Log in Create account
Shop the sale
In celebration of Independent Bookstore Day, shop our limited-time sale on bestselling audiobooks from April 22nd-28th. Donāt miss outāpurchases support your local bookstore!
Shop nowBuilding Bridges
This audiobook uses AI narration.
Weāre taking steps to make sure AI narration is transparent.
Learn moreListen as Stephen King, one of America's most celebrated authors, shares his acceptance speech at the 2003 National Book Awards as he's awarded the illustrious Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters from the National Book Foundation.
Each Autumn, in conjunction with the conferring of The National Book Awards in Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, and Young People's Literature, the Board of Directors of the Foundation presents a Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. The recipient is a person who has enriched our literary heritage over a life of service, or a corpus of work. The 2003 recipient of this distinguished award was presented to one of the great voices of American literatureāStephen King.
King accepts the award with grace and wit. His acceptance speech is filled with loving thanks to his wife Tabitha and with a passionate appreciation of his craft. King reflects on bridging the gap between literary and popular writers as well as staying true to his work and to himself over the many years. He concludes his speech by saluting all the nominees and with his sincerest hope that "you'll find something to read that will fill you up as this evening has filled me up."
Stephen King is the author of more than sixty books, all of them worldwide bestsellers.Ā His recent work includes the short story collection You Like It Darker,Ā Holly,Ā Fairy Tale,Ā Billy Summers,Ā If It Bleeds,Ā The Institute,Ā Elevation,Ā The Outsider,Ā Sleeping BeautiesĀ (cowritten with his son Owen King), and the Bill Hodges trilogy:Ā End of Watch,Ā FindersĀ Keepers,Ā andĀ Mr. MercedesĀ (an Edgar Award winnerĀ for Best Novel and a television series streaming on Peacock). His novelĀ 11/22/63Ā was named aĀ top ten book of 2011 byĀ TheĀ New York TimesĀ Book ReviewĀ and won theĀ Los Angeles TimesĀ Book Prize for Mystery/Thriller. His epic worksĀ The Dark Tower,Ā It,Ā Pet Sematary,Ā Doctor Sleep, andĀ FirestarterĀ are the basis forĀ major motion pictures, withĀ ItĀ now the highest-grossing horror film of all time. He is the recipientĀ of the 2020 Audio Publishers Association Lifetime Achievement Award, the 2018 PEN America Literary Service Award, theĀ 2014 National Medal of Arts, and theĀ 2003 National Book Foundation Medal forĀ Distinguished Contribution to American Letters.Ā He lives in Bangor, Maine, with his wife,Ā novelist Tabitha King.Ā
Stephen King is the author of more than sixty books, all of them worldwide bestsellers.Ā His recent work includes the short story collection You Like It Darker,Ā Holly,Ā Fairy Tale,Ā Billy Summers,Ā If It Bleeds,Ā The Institute,Ā Elevation,Ā The Outsider,Ā Sleeping BeautiesĀ (cowritten with his son Owen King), and the Bill Hodges trilogy:Ā End of Watch,Ā FindersĀ Keepers,Ā andĀ Mr. MercedesĀ (an Edgar Award winnerĀ for Best Novel and a television series streaming on Peacock). His novelĀ 11/22/63Ā was named aĀ top ten book of 2011 byĀ TheĀ New York TimesĀ Book ReviewĀ and won theĀ Los Angeles TimesĀ Book Prize for Mystery/Thriller. His epic worksĀ The Dark Tower,Ā It,Ā Pet Sematary,Ā Doctor Sleep, andĀ FirestarterĀ are the basis forĀ major motion pictures, withĀ ItĀ now the highest-grossing horror film of all time. He is the recipientĀ of the 2020 Audio Publishers Association Lifetime Achievement Award, the 2018 PEN America Literary Service Award, theĀ 2014 National Medal of Arts, and theĀ 2003 National Book Foundation Medal forĀ Distinguished Contribution to American Letters.Ā He lives in Bangor, Maine, with his wife,Ā novelist Tabitha King.Ā