[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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In Betweenness
is it a good thing to find
Pierre Joris, In Betweenness
two empty pages between the day
before yesterday & yesterday
when trying to make room
for the blue opera afternoon
of today a sunday like any sunday
in may?
I know in betweenness. I know the space In between awake and asleep. I know the space in between yesterday, today, and tomorrow. I know the space between pain, noise, cruelty, brokenness, chaos, isolation, grief, and fear. I know the space in between syllables as the stretch to form words. I know the space in between I am and I am not yet.
I know what it means to make room in between all that. Deep in the marrow of my bones I know what it means to excavate and plant and heal. The in between is where that happens. We make room in between. Making room means shedding and pruning and clearing. Making room means letting go and letting in. Making room means moving through and moving on.
I am comforted by in betweenness. Let me explain. In betweenness teaches and celebrates soft edges and safe places. In betweeness lets us build strength and learn. In betweenness is life’s training wheels — training wheels that help us keep from crashing when we are learning how to ride a bike. It’s hard to crash in between. In betweenness helps us get from here to there and find pages in our days.
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.
