[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 Modified Villanelle for My Childhood
Each month it got a little less civil
From “A Modified Villanelle for My Childhood” by Suzi F. Garcia
Isolation is a learned defense
When all you wanna do is write lyrical.
Life has gotten less civil in recent years. We can argue the roots and definition of the problem. We can place blame and elevate the temperature of the discourse. We can actually be right about it all and be so wedded to rightness that our heart hardens.
Let me be clear. I am not arguing for fake civility based on lies and power grabbing as a way to maintain the comfort of a few at the expense of the many. I am not arguing for civility without justice. I am not arguing for civility that smells and tastes and feels like toxic positivity. I am arguing for a loving civility of soft hearts and nimble minds. I am arguing for a lyrical civility in which we all write and sing and create. I am arguing for social civility in which we reject isolation and fear.
Sharing our stories is civil. All of our stories. Our whole stories. Full-throated. Falling apart and together. Shadow and light. All of our stories. We are fundamentally changed by story. Garcia writes about magic. Maybe story is magic. Maybe story offers an alchemy of civility.
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.
