[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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Bird Feeder
Asked, she’d tell you her life is made out of
From Marilyn Nelson, “Bird Feeder“
the things she didn’t do, as much as the
things she did do. Did she sing a love song?
I have never been one to spend five seconds on the things I don’t do. I am much more likely to jump completely in to the things I feel hell bent on doing. That is a choice, for better or worse, I have made throughout my life. I have had a — mostly — gather no moss mentality. I have lived — mostly—in forward motion. Standing up after I fall on my face. Strengthening my gratitude and vulnerability and honesty muscles. Building rather than tearing down.
I turn 50 this year. I am spending time thinking about the things I have not done. The trip to Tokyo I have not taken. The hard conversation with [fill in the blank] that I have not had. The article I have not submitted. The book proposal I have not sent. The 50th wedding anniversary acknowledgement for my parent’s I have not fully offered. A debate between have not and will not bounces around my brain. Life’s clock ticks.
The foundation of my life has settled — just a touch — sideways. That is what happens when we take time to embrace all that we haven’t, have not yet, and may never do. I live in the space between mending and patching and more settling. I love in the space between mending and patching and more settling. Between roots and wings. Between having and wanting. Between climbing mountains and watching bird feeders. Between silence and love songs. Between stillness and dancing.
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.
