[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 A Walk #19
Taking A Walk With Andrea Gibson
I was introduced to Andrea Gibson as part of Jane Ratcliffe’s Beyond newsletter community. “Becoming Love: A Conversation with Andrea Gibson,” their two-part Beyond conversation, broke my heart open and made me consider life more deeply. Hearing of her transition on July 14, 2025, I (like many others) immediately sought solace in their words. It is in the knowledge that their words comfort, and shine a light on what it means to be human and in love with our world and all the joy and sorrow it contains that I take this walk.
WHAT’S REAL
I garden in the soil of a song.
Walk barefoot through rows
of sheet music, picking strawberries
from the low notes, peaches
from the high notes. I feed myself
a chorus, and for the first time
in many months, I am full.From Andrea Gibson’s “WHAT’S REAL”
Read the entire poem on Andrea’s newsletter, Things That Don’t Suck.
A List of Things I Love
The poetry of everyday
I love. That could be the end of the sentence, but I love sentences. I love words huddled together like strangers trying to survive a frigid night. I love rock sculptures built in windstorms. I love sandcastles crafted inches from the waves.
From Andrea Gibson’s “A List of Things I Love”
Read the entire poem on Andrea’s newsletter, “Things That Don’t Suck.”
LOVE LETTER FROM THE AFTERLIFE
My love, I was so wrong. Dying is the opposite of leaving. When I left my body, I did not go away. That portal of light was not a portal to elsewhere, but a portal to here. I am more here than I ever was before.
From Andrea Gibson’s “LOVE LETTER FROM THE AFTERLIFE.”
Read the entire poem on Andrea’s newsletter, “Things That Don’t Suck.”
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Taking A Walk #18
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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.
