[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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Ars Poëtica #100: I Believe
Poetry is what you find
in the dirt in the corner,overhear on the bus, God
in the details, the only wayto get from here to there.
From Elizabeth Bishop’s “Ars Poëtica #100: I Believe”
I am beginning to believe life itself is poetry. Miracles punctuated by failures, elevated by dreams, deepened by story, built by sweat, sweetened by kindness, strengthened by experience.
Life is the details. That’s why paying attention is important. That’s why our stories are important. That’s why sharing is important. That’s why celebration is important. We are all poets living the details. We must summons our poet selves.
As Bishop reflects, the only way to get from here to there is through. A poet is part weaver, part painter, part chef, part photographer, part surgeon, part musician, part pilot, part cartographer using materials, equipment, machines, ingredients, skills, and wisdom to get through. There is poetry in getting through.
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.
