[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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Still I Rise
You may write me down in history
From “Still I Rise” by Maya Angelou
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I’ll rise.
This is one of the poems we memorize.
I have theory about the poems we memorize.
The poems we memorize teach us our story. The poems we memorize sing songs of strength. The poems we memorize remind us of where we have been. The poems we memorize reveal where we are. The poems we memorize inspire us toward what is not yet. The poems we memorize slice experience into fine pieces. The poems we memorize taste like rainbows, rose petals, and tears. The poems that we memorize wake us up and tuck us into bed. The poems we memorize scaffold life’s falling apart and coming together. The poems we memorize are Wynken, Blyken, and Nod, soft animals loving what they love, and hope and feathers.
What happens when we memorize? When we memorize we invite words into our consciousness, where we chew and knead and breathe. When we memorize we create new paths of understanding like train tracks or highways or rivers or blood vessels that redefine define to and from. When we memorize we rehearse, step into new shoes, try on things for fit. When we memorize, we go deep. When we memorize, we rise.
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.
