[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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Untitled [This is what was bequeathed us]
This is what was bequeathed us:
This earth the beloved left
And, leaving,
Left to us.
From Gregory Orr, Untitled [This is what was bequeathed us]
Bequeath is a big word. It speaks of responsibility, legacy, flow, stewardship, and more. It reminds me, “To whom much is given, much will be required” (Luke 12:48). The older I get the more I think about it.
Orr’s last stanza reads, “That, and the beloved’s clear instructions: Turn me into song; sing me awake.” Perhaps that is why I am fascinated by wide-awakeness. Somewhere between what we inherit and what we leave behind, we must be awake. We must pay attention. (To pay attention means we honor.) We must love fiercely. (To love fiercely means we care for ourselves, others, and our earth.) We must sing. (To sing means that our song carries through generations.)
We are bequeathed a world.
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.
