[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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Grief is a Mouse
Grief is a Mouse -/ And chooses Wainscot in the Breast/For His Shy House -/ And baffles quest -// Grief is a Thief – quick startled -/ Pricks His Ear – report to hear/ Of that Vast Dark – That swept His Being – back -// Grief is a Juggler – boldest at the Play – Lest if He flinch – the eye that way/ Pounce on his Bruises – One – say – or Three -/ Grief is a Gourmand – spare His luxury -// Best Grief is Tongueless – before He’ll tell – Burn him in the Public Square -/ His Ashes – will/ Possibly – if they refuse – How then know -/ Since a Rack couldn’t coax a syllable – now.
Emily Dickinson
Giving shape and form and voice to Grief is important. Grief is all around. Creeping. Stealing. Juggling. Eating. Burning. Coaxing.
Acknowledge grief. Hold it. Honor it. Allow it to live and breathe. Make it part of the falling apart and coming together. It already is for us all. It is a common experience. It is a tie that binds. It is our story. Our lamentations bring us together. Making all we have lost a blessing starts with sharing the weight of grief together.
Think about sharing the weight.
A wise healer in Bali once told me that I did not have to carry the weight. He was not speaking about any weight in particular. He was talking about the weight of it all. Those words resonant over years and continents and oceans. Those words resonant over contexts and relationships and deaths. Those words resonant over yesterday and today and tomorrow.
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.
