[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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Do you think women are less brave?
Do you think women are less brave? No. When they realize the truth they will fight for it.
Sarah Grand
It started when I was young. Maybe because I am a libra? Maybe because I think truth — the kind that feels like integrity, clarity, and honesty — is a superpower? Maybe because I know truth in my bones — like my Nana who used to know it ways going to rain when the arthritis in her thumbs would act up? When I realize truth, I fight for it.
Realizing truth takes deep work. Fighting for truth looks different at different times. Sometimes I am better at it — both realizing and fighting for truth — than others. Sometimes fighting for truth means writing words the share light in our world. (Writing is thinking, and I believe in my heart realizing truth and fighting for truth come from seeking our voice and using it.) Sometimes fighting for truth involves careful, direct, compassionate, one-on-one conversations. Those are harder than I sometimes think, and on my lesser days I run from them. Sometimes fighting for truth involves working on a Presidential campaign or attending a march. (Flashy, out-front, and loud work can be fun and profoundly soul lifting.) Sometimes fighting for truth means being an active part of a faith community committed to doing the work of a loving world. (Realizing and fighting for truth are the core of a faith community.)
I want to say a few words about the bravery and truth. Truth takes bravery. It takes bravery to be vulnerable. It takes bravery to heal. It takes bravery to confront shame. It takes bravery to forgive — both ourselves and others. It takes bravery to play in the magic. It takes bravery to find and use our voice. So, no. Women aren’t less brave.
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.
