[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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Invitation
Oh do you have time/ to linger/ for just a little while/ out of your busy/ and very important day/ for the goldfinches/ that have gathered/ in a field of thistles/ for a musical battle,/ to see who can sing/ the highest note,/ or the lowest,/ or the most expressive of mirth,/ or the most tender?/ Their strong, blunt beaks/ drink the air/ as they strive/ melodiously/ not for your sake/ and not for mine/ and not for the sake of winning/ but for sheer delight and gratitude –/ believe us, they say,/ it is a serious thing/ just to be alive/ on this fresh morning/ in the broken world./ I beg of you,/ do not walk by/ without pausing/ to attend to this/ rather ridiculous performance./ It could mean something./ It could mean everything./ It could be what Rilke meant, when he wrote:/ You must change your life.
Mary Oliver
I have spent many years trying to change my life. Wanting to notice goldfinches. Wanting to hear their song. Wanting to sing, myself. Wanting to do something just because I am thankful to be alive. Wanting to understand kintsungi while I live in this broken bowl of a world.
After all that, I am not sure what it means to change a life. Does it mean to tell my truth? Does it mean living with fire? Does it mean cultivating a beginner’s mind? Does it mean stillness during the falling apart and coming together? Does it mean perpetual spring? Does it mean accepting the simple invitation to life offered by the goldfinches?
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.
