[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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Search Party
Together, above the kitchen sink, we peeled/ a hundred russets. You taught me how
Steven Espada Dawson
to scoop their eyes out. If we didn’t,// they’d watch us eat, you said.
Potatoes have always given me purpose and comfort and pleasure. Mashing potatoes was my first job during preparing family dinners as a child. My grandfather taught me how to dig potatoes in his garden. I still bring the potatoes to pitch ins. Stories are told over potatoes. I belong. I contribute. The world makes sense.
Family dinners are different now and the land where our garden once thrived is part of an international airport. Life goes on. I still mash potatoes. I carry the lessons with me. Knowing exactly where to stab the potato mound meant I knew how to pay attention. Family stories flowed easily when mashing potatoes and I knew how to listen. Patience was demanded as we peeled. Potatoes asked that we slow down. Having the right tools was important, too.
Potatoes were also one of my first lessons in gratitude. Let me explain. I was truly grateful to be included in the process of making the meal. It is beautiful to be part of feeding others. I was grateful for belonging. I was grateful for the shape it gave to my understanding of home and family. I was grateful for the rhythm of it all.
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.
