[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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A Gift From the Abyss
a·byss
Noun: 1. a deep or seemingly bottomless chasm 2. bottomless pit 3. a wide or profound difference between people; a gulf 4. the regions of hell conceived of as a bottomless pit
I have been living in the abyss for the last few years. I find comfort in knowing I am not alone in birth and death, beginnings and endings, joy and sorrow, kindness and cruelty. I remember the falling apart and coming back together, the empty bowl and beginner’s mind. Recognizing that our interdependence is our superpower and that paying attention is a radical act makes me feel better. I find solace in scar tissue, start dust, and kaleidoscopes.
The details of the abyss don’t matter. The ebbs and flows are so personal and individual that they become universal and big enough to hold it all. Weight is weight. Joy is joy. Fear is fear. Grief is grief. Light is light. Pain is pain. Faith is faith. We can cry and heal together when we drop down into experience — honestly, with sincerity and vulnerability. From there, we can tell our stories and sing our songs.
I propose there are gifts from the abyss. Possibility. Awe. Courage. Connection. Clarity. These are all gifts waiting to be welcomed and embraced.
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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.
What a wonderful reminder of just how magical Key West can be! It has been a long time since we were there, but this makes me want to do it again! Thank you, as always, for taking me to magical places through your wonderful writing! Hugs to you both!