[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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The Poem Wants A Drink
Call it gray and tired. Even call it
a cliche. This poem’s lived long enough
to know exactly what it means
to say: Don’t be stingy
with the whiskey, baby.
…..Yes, the night
has been a cruel one, and this poem
could use a drink.
from Karen Glenn’s “The Poem Wants A Drink“
I love the idea that poems know who they are.
Straight talking. Tell it like it is. Hip shooting.
Maybe they have a little attitude. Maybe they are tired of being told to smile or rhyme or make sense. Maybe they want to scream, “You’ve got it all wrong!” and leave the room without feeling compelled to explain the outburst. Maybe sometimes they are what they are — a few words that sound fun or unique or lyrical or silly — and don’t have any deep meaning. Maybe sometimes they talk about God. Maybe sometimes they simply dance in mixed metaphor, or hyperbole, or punctuation. Maybe sometimes they are a rigid exercise in precise language. Maybe sometimes they toss their curls and flirt. Maybe sometimes they stare at a ladybug on a leaf or a worm on a sidewalk. Maybe sometimes they are white hot anger. Maybe sometimes they are the high road. Maybe sometimes they are scar tissue. Maybe sometimes they are grace and understanding manifest.
About Katie
From 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.
