[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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This Old Town
This old town was built by hand
From Nanci Griffith’s “This Old Town“
In the dust bowl of the motherland
There must be rock beneath this sand
Oh I’ll be damned, this town still stands
I have been a traveler my entire life. I have covered a lot of ground. Home has always been home. My traveler’s heart has guided me around and around. It all could have burned down, as the song suggests, many times. Rock has always been beneath the sand. When I leave, quit, fail, rock has always been beneath the sand. When I stay, finish, succeed, rock has always been beneath the sand. When it comes time for new, rock has been beneath the sand.
This old town is big enough to be rock and sand — roots and wings. This old town is bigger than simple geography. This old town is big enough to be past, present, and future. This old town is big enough to hold birth and death. This old town is big enough to include every falling apart and coming together. This old town is big enough to be history, romance, heart break, lessons, burning, planting, harvesting, and all that. This old town is big enough for welcomes and goodbyes.
I am thankful for my old town. I am thankful for family that includes and extends beyond blood. I am thankful for curiosity born of comfort. I am thankful for home that makes seeking possible.
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.
