[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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I Ask Percy How I Should Live My Life
Love, love, love, says Percy./ And hurry as fast as you can/ along the shining beach, or the rubble, or the dust./ Then, go to sleep./ Give up your body heat, your beating heart./ Then, trust.
Mary Oliver
[Advice from Mary Oliver’s dog, Percy.]
Percy speaks the truth. Start with love. Love. Live. Sleep. Share. Trust.
This poem reminds me of wordlessness and oneness all wrapped into one. Percy understands a concept as deep and wide and textured as love. (Animals get it. They live in integrity and express themselves in truth without ever speaking a word.) Love is the force behind curiosity and service. It is the firmament of sound rest and fluid breath. It is the soft underbelly of joy and sorrow. It is the microscope under which to study what does and does not matter. It is the force that can move souls and mountains. It is the net that makes falling and soaring possible. It is the stone worth pushing up the hill. It is the sun worth flying close to. It is It is the heart of life itself.
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.
