[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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Forward Warrior
I have needed to hear this message lately. I have needed to surround myself in strength and beauty and press on. The world right now feels so hard. It is hard to fix our gaze on anything other than the pain and suffering, even though fixing our gaze on the good while we live through the hard together, might be our surest path to peace.
I suspect I am not alone in feeling scared and tired lately. Forward Warrior is anything but scared and tired. She reminds me to put on foot in front of the other. She reminds me to care for myself and others. She reminds me to let my mind bloom and overflow in goodness. She reminds me to be patient and gentle in all things. She reminds me of our capacity to see beauty. She reminds me of the strength of resolution and knowing. She is powerful in the way that making decisions is powerful. She is powerful in the way that speaking our truth is powerful. She is powerful in the way that love is powerful.
A Note on my Atlanta Beltline Writing Project
I am practicing paying attention. I am practicing noticing beauty. I am practicing getting in touch with my artist self. I am practicing connecting with the outdoors. I am practicing my inner Mary Oliver. I live in Atlanta, “the city in a forest.” I live on the Atlanta Beltline, an interurban trail that graces the city. The Beltline is part arboretum, part art gallery, part park. It connects shops and restaurants and homes with people of all descriptions. I walk on the Beltline 4 or 5 times a week. I have spent the last year appreciating all that it is. I have personally photographed the images I will share. My hope is to write about it — its art, trees, landmarks, etc.— for the next few weeks as spring unfolds.
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.
