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.
In recognition of receiving the Dateline Award for the Washingtonian Magazine essay, The Unspeakable Gift.
Enter your email here to receive Weekly Wide-Awake
Like A White Stone

Like a white stone deep in a draw-well lying,
Anna Akhmatova, Like A White Stone
As hard and clear, a memory lies in me.
I cannot strive nor have I heart for striving:
It is such pain and yet such ecstasy.
Striving as both pain and ecstasy. That makes sense to me. I am a relentless striver. I am a soft hearted, perpetually hungry, eyes as wide as saucers, hard headed when provoked dreamer. I am also a holder of memories, flashes of light, messages that change me early in the morning. Somehow I hold it all.
That is the striving. The holding while letting go. The paying attention while looking beyond. The building while burning. The creating while dying. The breathing while exhausted. The relentless hope while terrified. The warrior on her knees. The warrior with her face to the sun.
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.