[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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Sojourns in the Parallel World
No one discovers
From Denise Levertov’s “Sojourns in the Parallel World.”
just where we’ve been, when we’re caught up again
into our own sphere (where we must
return, indeed, to evolve our destinies)
—but we have changed, a little.
I get lost, just a little bit, every time I run in the park near our home. (Its a huge park, and I have a bad sense of direction when is does not involve a restaurant or store.) Getting lost and finding myself in the woods, in the middle of a city, is truly a surprising gift. There is beauty in getting lost. There is beauty in finding a parallel world, especially when that parallel world is right outside your door. Deep in the woods, the sounds of car alarms and sirens and the to-do list in my brain yield to the power of the parallel world. Only when I am lost do I see. Only when I am lost do I hear. Only when I am lost do I smell. Only when I am lost do I allow myself to cry tears of joy at the absolute wonder that surrounds me.
Remembering the beauty of being lost feels important. When we embrace being lost, we step outside everyday’s fog. When we embrace being lost, we can revel in certain uncertainty. When we embrace being lost, history becomes a larger narrative of communal lostness. Compassion can be found in our lostness. When we embrace being lost, we experience new parts of ourselves — parts of ourselves that know truth, play big, sing loudly, live courageously, and experience full-on love. When we embrace being lost, we learn what is means to find.
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.
