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ABOUT THE BOOK
“Writers only know how to begin,” Laura Childs Gill declares in one of her many attempts to trace the origin of the desires that upended her comfortable life. Did it begin when she asked B. to get a beer? Or was the impulse inherited along her paternal side, a lineage of writers who'd also fallen in love outside of marriage — who’d also always been leaving?
In What a House Can Hold, Gill’s meditative essays take form around her inability to neatly narrativize her domestic and creative crises. Visiting the houses of Dickinson, Faulkner, and Fitzgerald, driving through the Florida Keys with her father, the Mojave Desert with her mother, and the American South alone, Gill searches for answers to her questions about how one leaves, and builds, a home. At once about the loss of a previous self and the acceptance of a new one, What a House Can Hold contends with, and exemplifies, what happens when the structures designed to contain us—marriages, homes, habits, self-mythologies—no longer can.
PRAISE FOR WHAT A HOUSE CAN HOLD
“Laura Childs Gill writes with such a command of her narrative weave, that we are hooked by the story itself—the quest for a home place and the fearless exploration of loves lost and found—and at the same time amazed by the artistic joinery we see happening at every turn. To her title What a House Can Hold—my response is ‘much more than I would have thought.’”
—Sven Birkerts, author of The Miro Worm and the Mysteries of Writing
“What a House Can Hold is not so much a book as a door opening upon a quickening, vivid heart. It is tender, complex and erudite; a feast of symbols and a dispatch on the nexus of love and writing. I did not want it to end.”
—Sue Rainsford, author of Follow Me to Ground
“Lyrical and deeply hopeful, What a House Can Hold is a story for anyone who has wondered whether home is less a destination than a way of holding oneself. It asks what we carry, what we remember, and what remains after loss rearranges the rooms of a life. It is a book about memory held with care, the lives we inherit and the loves that echo through them. Blending interior reflection with history, art, food, and travel, this tender work never closes itself off. Even in its most personal moments, it leaves the door open for the reader to enter, recognize themselves, and stay awhile.”
—Shauna Barbosa, author of Cape Verdean Blues
“Bold, rigorous, and beautifully constructed, What a House Can Hold is a remarkable collection. Laura Childs Gill writes about the mysteries of longing, loss, and connection in ways that left me spellbound. I loved this book.”
—Chelsea Hodson, author of Tonight I’m Someone Else
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Laura Childs Gill is an author and teacher living in Miami, Florida. Her essays have been published in AGNI, The Los Angeles Review, West Branch, Washington Square Review, and Electric Literature, amongst others.
BOOK INFO
Pub Date: October 20, 2026
Print Length: 160 pages
Dimensions: 5.5×8.5”
ISBN: 978-1-957392-51-6
ABOUT THE BOOK
“Writers only know how to begin,” Laura Childs Gill declares in one of her many attempts to trace the origin of the desires that upended her comfortable life. Did it begin when she asked B. to get a beer? Or was the impulse inherited along her paternal side, a lineage of writers who'd also fallen in love outside of marriage — who’d also always been leaving?
In What a House Can Hold, Gill’s meditative essays take form around her inability to neatly narrativize her domestic and creative crises. Visiting the houses of Dickinson, Faulkner, and Fitzgerald, driving through the Florida Keys with her father, the Mojave Desert with her mother, and the American South alone, Gill searches for answers to her questions about how one leaves, and builds, a home. At once about the loss of a previous self and the acceptance of a new one, What a House Can Hold contends with, and exemplifies, what happens when the structures designed to contain us—marriages, homes, habits, self-mythologies—no longer can.
PRAISE FOR WHAT A HOUSE CAN HOLD
“Laura Childs Gill writes with such a command of her narrative weave, that we are hooked by the story itself—the quest for a home place and the fearless exploration of loves lost and found—and at the same time amazed by the artistic joinery we see happening at every turn. To her title What a House Can Hold—my response is ‘much more than I would have thought.’”
—Sven Birkerts, author of The Miro Worm and the Mysteries of Writing
“What a House Can Hold is not so much a book as a door opening upon a quickening, vivid heart. It is tender, complex and erudite; a feast of symbols and a dispatch on the nexus of love and writing. I did not want it to end.”
—Sue Rainsford, author of Follow Me to Ground
“Lyrical and deeply hopeful, What a House Can Hold is a story for anyone who has wondered whether home is less a destination than a way of holding oneself. It asks what we carry, what we remember, and what remains after loss rearranges the rooms of a life. It is a book about memory held with care, the lives we inherit and the loves that echo through them. Blending interior reflection with history, art, food, and travel, this tender work never closes itself off. Even in its most personal moments, it leaves the door open for the reader to enter, recognize themselves, and stay awhile.”
—Shauna Barbosa, author of Cape Verdean Blues
“Bold, rigorous, and beautifully constructed, What a House Can Hold is a remarkable collection. Laura Childs Gill writes about the mysteries of longing, loss, and connection in ways that left me spellbound. I loved this book.”
—Chelsea Hodson, author of Tonight I’m Someone Else
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Laura Childs Gill is an author and teacher living in Miami, Florida. Her essays have been published in AGNI, The Los Angeles Review, West Branch, Washington Square Review, and Electric Literature, amongst others.
BOOK INFO
Pub Date: October 20, 2026
Print Length: 160 pages
Dimensions: 5.5×8.5”
ISBN: 978-1-957392-51-6