[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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Why Your Creativity Matters
“You have this beautiful line from the poet Jack Gilbert that I just I think about about once a week. And it is. “Do you have the courage? Do you have the courage to bring forth this work? The treasures that are hidden inside you are hoping you will say yes.”
Kate Bowler
Trying to bring forth the work is hard. It is hard to even know what the work is. I love the idea that if we are still we will know the work, but I am not convinced. Simply knowing the work seems like a step toward knowing my self and living in truth and integrity, and that is hard. It is hard to quiet the monkey mind that says I am not good enough, or that’s not possible, or life is not meant to be joyful. It is hard to find time amongst competing demands — that each in their own way tap into what and who we love — which makes choosing and prioritizing our work impossible. It is hard to be vulnerable in the way that sharing parts of ourselves through our work requires us to be. It is hard not to be overwhelmed by the weight of it all — self expectation, self doubt, self distraction.
I am comforted by the idea that there are hidden treasures inside me hoping that I will say yes. I am comforted by the idea that I am, in general, a yes person and drawn to yes people. I am drawn to saying yes in the way that the hot/cold test of life ensures that yes leads the perfect direction at the perfect time.
Maybe not doing work is the hard choice. The denial of self. The perpetual staring out life’s window. The anger that manifests as jealousy and comparison and envy and spite. When we don’t do the work, we miss out on failure’s gifts. I hate it when people call failure a gift, but the older I get, the truer that statement becomes. Here’s why. Failure is a sign we are learning. Evidence of curiosity. Not doing the work because we are afraid of failure. We are stuck, and being stuck is hard.
I choose to do the work. Scrape my knees, often. Have my heart break a little, often. Seek my edge, often. Remembering to breathe as much as I can. Having clarity around my work continues. It has required both coming home to myself and creating new understanding of self. It has required burning through 800 tries. (I literally mean burning through in some cases.) It means parts living and dying. It means sunrises and sunsets. It means ebbs and flows. It means saying yes and no.
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.
