[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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Weekly Wide-Awake: Little Book of Cheerful Thoughts
Small enough to fit
From Jeffrey Harrison’s “Little Book of Cheerful Thoughts“
in your shirt pocket
so you could take it out
in a moment of distress
to ingest a happy
maxim or just stare
a while at its orange
and yellow cover
(so cheerful in itself
you need go no further),
this little booklet
wouldn’t stop a bullet
aimed at your heart
I have more little books of cheerful thoughts than I know what to do with. (I tried to count them before a recent move and lost track at 20.) They cover daily reflections, motivational quotes, meditation prompts, writing advice, cat antics, and much more. I have bought some, and some have been given to me as gifts. I love them in the way I love the perfect quote at the perfect time. I love them in the way that a phone call with a friend can snap me out of a funk. I love them in the way they ask nothing of me but to simply be. Brevity and lightness are gifts in what can otherwise be a heavy and complicated world.
I understand what Harrison is saying about expecting too much, or diving too deep into little book waters. I view them more for inspiration than information. The word “little” can demean and denote a certain lack of seriousness. The word “cheerful” can do that, too. (I don’t believe everything that is big and/or serious is necessarily high quality. Also, I do not believe everything must be big and/or serious. In fact, I am glad they aren’t.) Fundamentally, positivity that denies or ignores life’s realities is not helpful in a healing, truth-telling, growth kind of way. The positivity of little books speaks to me differently. It comes from a creative, kind, gentle, and (sometimes) funny space.
My writing can fall into the little book category. My daily blog. My Weekly Wide-Awake. The book I am writing about gratitude. The writing I submit for publication. It all comes from the same impulse. I offer it all as a reminder to stay awake to the gift that is each day, a glimpse of beauty offered by artists, and a moment of solace and comfort within life’s routine. From there, I read and write little cheerful thoughts.
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.
