A HISTORY OF HOLDING
BY ALLISON MEI-LI
Releasing November 11th, 2025.
From desperate search histories to dancing in a sun-kissed kitchen, A History of Holding explores what it means to be a human while raising one.
Rooted between the cosmic and the domestic, Allison Mei-Li’s debut turns motherhood into a meditation on time, love, and loss. Through moments of tenderness and rage, identity and grief, wonder and doubt, it captures a reckoning both physical and existential—revealing how a mother’s life expands and contracts all at once.
Threaded throughout is a constellation of small revelations: the first crack in a child’s innocence, hissing like ice on a pond; a mother rediscovering herself in a stranger’s stare; sunlight catching on tiny shoulders. Here we glimpse the quiet awe and worry woven into the everyday—a map of how love remakes everything it touches.
For anyone who knows the world is as breathtaking as it is brutal, this book is a reminder to keep reaching for the heart of it all, to keep finding meaning in all that we’ve held.
PRAISE FOR A HISTORY OF HOLDING
“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
“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
“Allison Mei-Li has such a refreshing way of writing about motherhood. Her poems piece together the heartache, unfiltered joy, and unexplainable time-grief that comes with being a mother. You’ll walk away from this stunning collection with a fuller heart.”
—OPHELIA MONET
EIC of Wildscape Lit Journal
“Beautifully written, tender and poignant. Reading A History of Holding feels like holding a crystal of womanhood up to the light—every turn reveals a different facet. Incredibly special.”
—MICHELLE AWAD
author of Soul Trash, Space Garbage
"The perfect read for every mother. Allison Mei-Li finds a way to articulates the tangled web of emotions that every mother feels. This collection is a true reflection of parenthood in the modern world."
—JILLIAN STACIA
author of Set the Bone (forthcoming)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Allison Mei-Li is a writer, mother, and speech-language pathologist based in Southern California. A reader for The Turning Leaf Journal, she also hosts poetry-centered gatherings both locally and online, creating spaces for story, connection, and reflection. Allison’s poems have appeared in anthologies, podcasts, and journals such as Rust & Moth, Coffee + Crumbs, MER Literary, Voicemail Poems, Ink & Marrow, Wildscape, and others. A History of Holding is her debut collection. You can reach her at allisonmwriting@gmail.com or on Instagram and Substack: writtenbyallison