It's here!! It's here!!

I’ve been waiting a long time to say this—my poetry collection, A History of Holding, is here! This is the book I wrote, lived, and breathed for years. I still can’t believe I get to hold it in my hands.

It releases on 11 / 11 wherever books are sold, and pre-orders are open now.

If you pre-order directly from me, you’ll receive a signed copy beautifully packaged and filled with small touches of love:

• a die-cut sticker of your choice — motherhood is poetry or poetry is my love language

• a keepsake bookmark

• a printed QR code with exclusive audio recordings of select poems

• all my love, gratitude, and appreciation 🩵

Note: Pre-orders have slightly thicker paper and richer print quality than Amazon’s version. Both are beautiful, though!

pre-order now

I’ve found that motherhood narratives often live in extremes, focusing on either the unbridled joy or unbearable weight of it all. The mother becomes a symbol, simplified and smoothed over. In reality, nothing could be further from the truth. Motherhood breaks you down, yes, but it also cracks you open.

I wanted to write something truer. Something brutally and beautifully honest. A book that looks at the full depth of a mother, and what it means to be a human while raising one.

In this collection, motherhood becomes a mirror for life itself. Rooted between the cosmic and domestic, these poems trace a transformation both physical and existential, revealing how a mother’s world expands and contracts all at once.

The poems in this collection are lyrical yet narrative, craft-driven yet accessible. In the end, this is a book that writes toward the ache of impermanence, the awe of survival, and the truth that what we hold—our children, our memories, ourselves—is never meant to stay the same.

• “What a vivid, fearless, compassionate portrait of motherhood. Allison Mei-Li cracks her heart wide open and leaves nothing behind. This is a book to savor, cling to, and gift to every mother you know. A stunning debut.”

  —ASHLEE GADD, author of Create Anyway: The Joy of Creating in the Margins of Motherhood
  

• “A History of Holding captures the raw and tender realities of becoming a mother, giving language to the experiences so many women carry just under the skin and fear they’re facing alone. This is a book of longing, grief, and joy so raw it rubs against the most tender parts of the heart. More than anything, this book offers what its title promises: the rare gift of feeling held.”
  —ELISE POWERS, author of The Size of Your Joy
  

grab your signed copy!

I’m so proud of this book. I love it, and I hope you do too. You can read more about A History of Holding at writtenbyallison.com/book. Please share with your friends, family, fellow poetry-lovers, and the mothers in your life.

Soon I’ll share a behind-the-book post—the messy, magical process of sequencing poems, designing the cover, and teaching myself how to publish. For now, I just want to savor this moment with you!