Holding

“A raw and intimate exploration of addiction, mothers and daughters, and families chosen and received. From childhood on, Brogan searches for meaning and connection, in a prose that’s lyrical, inventive, and expansive. A captivating and gorgeous debut.” — Vanessa Hua, author of Forbidden City“Brogan is a fearless and intuitive storyteller, spinning the world’s harshest truths into golden, beautiful sentences.” — Chelsea Bieker, author of Madwoman“Riveting, harrowing, and deeply insightful, Karleigh Brogan’s Holding is a memoir not just of addiction and mother hunger, but of an endlessly searching heart. It speaks to the opioid crisis, yes, but really it speaks to what must be soothed in all of us. I gulped this beautiful book down and learned so much from it.” — Alex Marzano-Lesnevich, author of The Fact of a Body“In Holding, Karleigh Frisbie Brogan has transmuted her gauntlet into ample truth and wisdom and did it with high style and prose that reads like a song. This book is a testament to human strength and the hard, hard day-by-day work of besting an albatross.” — Mitchell S. Jackson, author of Survival Math: Note on an All-American Family

Originally from Northern California, where the events of her debut memoir HOLDING mostly take place, Karleigh Frisbie Brogan’s work has appeared in The Atlantic, The Washington Post, The Huffington Post, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, and more. She is a 2024 Oregon Literary Fellow and a 2022 Rona Jaffe Scholar. She holds an MFA from Portland State University. She is also a grocer.