Poetry · Available now
All In on Empty
“Not perfection. Recognition.”
All In on Empty is a raw contemporary poetry collection about reinvention, grief, anxiety, casino life, and the brutal quiet of starting over.
After moving 1,300 miles from everything familiar, Natalie Halloway found herself rebuilding beneath desert skies and casino lights — writing through heartbreak, displacement, exhaustion, and the slow work of becoming someone new.
These poems are not polished reflections written safely from the other side. They are pieces written in the middle of the storm: on sleepless nights, after long shifts, under red desert sunsets, and in the moments when survival had to become a language of its own.
For readers who have ever felt uprooted, heartbroken, unseen, or forced to begin again, this collection offers recognition without pretending healing is clean.
For readers of Amanda Lovelace, Andrea Gibson, and the confessional tradition of Anne Sexton and Sylvia Plath.
Get the book
Prefer your local bookstore? Ask them to order it — All In on Empty is available through Ingram.
- Publisher
- Kismet Chaos Publishing
- ISBN-13
- 979-8-9967146-5-0
- Format
- 5 × 8 in paperback · 126 pages
- Paperback
- June 19, 2026
- Ebook
- June 2, 2026
- List price
- $16.99 USD
- Audience
- Adult (18+)
“My license plate still names
a place I once called home,
but I crossed the desert miles
because of you alone.”
from All In on Empty
Reader response
“I am blown away… these poems tore through my years and struggles as a young adult. It touched many feelings I had tucked away. Really dynamic.”
Early reader review · Missouri · ★★★★★