[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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Weekly Wide-Awake: The Stranger
I haven’t lost faith in human nature and I haven’t decided to be less compassionate to strangers.
Armistead Maupin
I have always been fascinated by strangers. I am curious by nature. I revel in mystery. I am a seeker of stories. I have always felt deeply connected to others, people I know and do not know. Strangers require fresh eyes and open minds. There is a particular safety in the anonymous. There is joy in sparkly new conversation. There is an abiding faith in reaching out to the unknown. I have always felt a little strange, a little too raw and sensitive for this world. Strangers require us to be our best selves — our most open, generous, and kind. Perhaps I find beauty in strangers, like a flower blooming.
I think about it like this. Strangers are love’s litmus test — how we treat strangers should mirror how we treat those we love. In that way, there are no strangers. Like Maupin, I have not lost faith in human nature. To be honest, I feel compelled to be even more compassionate to strangers right now. Being kind to strangers reminds me that vulnerability is a super power, and joy can be found in the smallest of interactions. I believe it is all interconnected — our selves, our earth. Strangers make that so.
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.
