[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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Mass for the Day of St. Thomas Didymus [excerpt]
Praise flow and change, night and the pulse of day.
From Denise Levertov’s “Mass for the Day of St. Thomas Didymus“
I am thankful for faith and doubt. I am thankful for beat and breath. I am thankful for pen and marginalia. I am thankful for unicorns and mermaids and magic beans and golden lamps.
In a world that often praises certainty, finds comfort in absolutes, celebrates dichotomies, and creates beautiful edges, doubt offers something else. Doubt offers keys to rigid locked doors. Doubt offers light onto stuck, dark paths. Doubt offers time and patience in hurried moments.
It might seem strange to be thankful for doubt, but let me explain. Think of doubt as a sideways glance at the as if or an invitation into the not yet. Doubt might seem counter to faith and hope, but it is not. Doubt is certain, like flow, and change, night and the pulse of day. Doubt is the seed that becomes a flower. Doubt is the wing that suggests flight. Doubt is the crack where the light gets in.
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.
