[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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Letter to My Body
Philosophers shilly-shally, but it’s true: you are me; I am you.
This dust, these rays, this strange internal sense
that after all these years, I finally exist — all of this
is only mine through you.
From Joy Ladin “Letter to My Body“
You are movement when I am stuck. You are rest when I am tired. You are the taste of cheese, chocolate, and warm bread. You are coarse sand in my toes, cold gingerbread dough in my fingers, and my love’s soft hands. You quench my thirst. You shape my dreams.
I have learned many lessons from you, dear one. I have learned about resilience and healing. I have learned about diagnosis and fear. I have learned about patience and power. I have learned about age and wisdom. I have learned about grace and beauty.
Sometimes you shake my shoulders. Sometimes you hold my hands. Sometimes you point my focus upward. Sometimes you steady my stride. Sometimes you slow my breath. Sometimes you cry because you are amazed, or moved, or sad, or joyful, or angry. Sometimes you simply listen.
Again, I am grateful. I know miracles happen because of you. I know strength because of you. I know the sunrise and the tide because of you. I know love because of you. I know the gift of each day because of you.
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.
