[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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A Winter Evening
Sweetheart of my youthful Springtime,
Alexander Pushkin, “Winter Evening“
Thou true-souled companion dear,
Let us drink! Away with sadness!
Wine will fill our hearts with cheer!
I am in a winter funk. I know I am not alone, and that comforts me a bit. This is my first winter back in a place where seasons happen. Where it gets cold. Where snow falls. Where I can wear my favorite sweaters. Where I can sometimes see my breath. Seasons feel right in my bones. There is joy here. Even before springtime. If there is joy here, why am I tired? Why am I sad? Why is motivation difficult? Why is focus impossible?
Pushkin banishes sadness in this poem. In that way, joy is a choice. A deliberate and powerful choice. Joy is a choice born of hope and light. Joy is the belief in ebbs and flows, falling apart and falling together, and impermanence. Joy is faith manifest.
That is where I am. Choosing joy in the midst of winter. Acknowledging being sad, and tired, and wore out. Knowing that others feel sad, and tired, and wore out, too. Knowing that spring will come with open arms in a little while. I can chose joy again, and again, and again even before then. Joy is in the choosing.
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.
