[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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Taking Back Our Listening
We cannot live in a world that is interpreted for us by others. An interpreted world is not a hope. Part of the terror is to take back our own listening. To use our own voice. To see our own light.
Hildegard of Bingen
I struggle to listen. I struggle to really listen and not simply to hear. (There is a difference between listening and hearing. It has to do with paying attention.) I struggle to take a breath before I speak — to know the pause before reacting — to be still and know. Maybe there is even a love of noise and distraction and busy that keeps me from listening.
Connecting the struggle to listen with the struggle to use our voice and to see our light is terrifying. At some level, it starts with realizing we have lost our capacity and desire to listen, having built walls and bashed mirrors and broken all the things to keep it all out. In the midst of all that, we must take back our listening. We are asked to feel safe and held. We are asked to risk and heal. We are asked to use our voice and shine our light.
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.
