[The Stage is on Fire] is a page-turner in which, much like life, there are no easy answers and yet each step of the journey yields insight and hope. This work of heart must not be missed!
Melanie Faith
Creative Writing Teacher, Essayist & Poet.
Katie Steedly’s first-person piece [The Unspeakable Gift] is a riveting retelling of her participation in a National Institutes of Health study that aided her quest to come to grips with her life of living with a rare genetic disorder. Her writing is superb.
The Society of Professional Journalists
In recognition of receiving the Dateline Award for the Washingtonian Magazine essay, The Unspeakable Gift.
I thank you … It is the authenticity of your “class notes”; and it is the delicacy and skill with which you present the nuances of classroom life and the actuality of your students’ and fellow teachers’ lives.
Maxine Greene
Philosopher and Education Scholar
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Weekly Wide-Awake: Reteach A Thing Its Loveliness
The bud/ stands for all things,/ even for those things that don’t flower/ for everything flowers, from within, of self-blessing;/ though sometimes it is necessary/ to reteach a thing its loveliness,/ to put a hand on its brow/ of the flower/ and retell it in words and in touch/ it is lovely/ until it flowers again from within, of self-blessing
– Galway Kinnell
In the midst of it all this week, I was struck by Galway Kinnell’s call “to reteach a thing its loveliness” from his poem Saint Francis and the Sow. This speaks to a truth I am learning – beauty is within us and around us. Reteaching happens when we, as Anne Lamott suggests, clog, slog, and scootch towards grace and healing. Reteaching happens when we connect with our well being, like through making peace with the scariest parts of our stories, or through finding an exercise that strengthens our mind and body. Reteaching happens through the generosity of our hearts and hands. Reteaching happens when we are joyous and shield our joyous ones.
About Katie
Born in Louisville. Live in Atlanta. Curious by nature. Researcher by education. Writer by practice. Grateful heart by desire.
Buy the Book!
The Stage Is On Fire, a memoir about hope and change, reasons for voyaging, and dreams burning down can be purchased on Amazon.
