[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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Seashells
I picked up shells with ruby lips
From Alexander Posey’s “Seashells“
That spoke in whispers of the sea,
Upon a time, and watched the ships,
On white wings, sail away to sea.
I collected shells from the beaches on which I would walk as a child. I visited the ocean on vacation, and shells connected me to another world. To the far off world of cherished memories. To the far off world of the ocean. The far off world of travel. The the far off world of imagination. I have kept those shells with me along my path.
A few weeks ago I was walking along a beach and found a shell that still had a creature living inside. The creature remained hidden as I moved the shell back into the ocean tide. I am not sure what lived in the shell. (I suppose if I knew more about the ocean I would have know what was living in the shell.) I understood the mystery of the situation. Though I have lived by the ocean as an adult, I was immediately transported back to my childhood.
I now understand a bit more why I have kept my shells all these years. There is joy in memories. There is wonder in the sunshine. There is comfort in the ebb and flow.
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.
