[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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Angel From Montgomery
Just give me one thing
From John Prine’s “Angel From Montgomery“
That I can hold on to
To believe in this livin’
Is just a hard way to go
I believe in angels. I believe in miracles. I believe in magic. I believe in stardust. I believe in patterns. I believe in nature. I believe in music. I believe in light. I believe in prayer. I believe in it all with the fire of a thousands suns. I hold it all close. I worry that if I hold it too close I might suffocate it, or bury it, or scare it away, or turn it in to a shield that keeps out the divine. I worry that if cling or grasp or clinch my fists it will all dissolve. I worry that when I forget to pay real attention, the kind of attention that makes it possible to soak it all in and experience awe and joy and life, it all becomes too much.
Dear Angel, What is my one thing to hold on to? If I can name it, I can hold it in my hands. If I can name it, I can know it in my bones. If I can name it, it can become real like air, water, and soil. Whisper it quietly. Sing it sweetly. Speak it plainly. Share it gently. Let me be still and know.
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.
