diff --git a/Misc/NEWS b/Misc/NEWS
index fe5afdd5900..63784210e5d 100644
--- a/Misc/NEWS
+++ b/Misc/NEWS
@@ -196,6 +196,9 @@ Core and Builtins
 Library
 -------
 
+- Issue #17209: curses.window.get_wch() now handles correctly KeyboardInterrupt
+  (CTRL+c).
+
 - Issue #5713: smtplib now handles 421 (closing connection) error codes when
   sending mail by closing the socket and reporting the 421 error code via the
   exception appropriate to the command that received the error response.
diff --git a/Modules/_cursesmodule.c b/Modules/_cursesmodule.c
index 35f9fc15dae..8436f03eeeb 100644
--- a/Modules/_cursesmodule.c
+++ b/Modules/_cursesmodule.c
@@ -1181,6 +1181,9 @@ PyCursesWindow_Get_WCh(PyCursesWindowObject *self, PyObject *args)
         return NULL;
     }
     if (ct == ERR) {
+        if (PyErr_CheckSignals())
+            return NULL;
+
         /* get_wch() returns ERR in nodelay mode */
         PyErr_SetString(PyCursesError, "no input");
         return NULL;