[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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I felt my life with both my hands
I felt my life with both my hands/ To see if it was there – I held my spirit to the Glass,/ To prove it possibler -// I turned my Being round and round/ And paused at every pound/ To ask the Owner’s name -/ For doubt, that I should know the Sound -// I judged my features – jarred my hair -/ I pushed my dimples by, and waited -/ If they – twinkled back – Conviction might, of me -// I told myself, “Take Courage, Friend -/ That – was a former time -/ But we might learn to like the Heaven,/ As well as our Old Home!”
Emily Dickinson
Holding our spirit to the glass happens. Pausing at every pound happens. Judging features and jarring hair and pushing dimples and waiting happens. Like breathing in and breathing out, there is a rhythm to life. A common French phrase, bien dans sa peau, describes being comfortable in our own skin. I think that is what holding, pausing, judging, jarring, pushing, and waiting is all about. Perhaps it is about learning to like Heaven and Old Home. Perhaps it is all about peace.
About Katie
From 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.
