[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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Transubstantiation
How does it work,
From “Transubstantiation” by Molly McCully Brown
again, the alchemy that shapes them briefly into boats, and then the bones
of great felled beasts, and once more into keening copper bells, before
I even blink? Half a mile out, the city builds back up along the margin.
I have never felt at home at life’s margin. My blood, sweat, and tears flow in the heart of things — more city than country. Being raised Protestant, I did not learn about the concept of transubstantiation until in religion class in my Catholic high school. It was then I began to understand the alchemy of my faith. Growing up, I was taught that Communion meant partaking in bread and wine in remembrance of Christ — not the actual body and blood of Christ (the products of transubstantiation found in Roman Catholic Church teaching). Communion was about remembering our oneness with God.
I feel close to God in cities. (That being said, I also believe that God’s love is everywhere. We can find, and be, perfect love wherever and whenever.) I was born in a city and have gravitated to cities my entire life. The rhythm of people. The beauty of creative space. The music of traffic. Skylines that touch heaven. Humanity writ large. I see God there. I feel God there. The body and the blood are there. If God is love, and Communion is ultimately about connecting with God’s love, cities connect me to the fullness God’s love.
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.
