all my names in one mouth, by Samantha Yee

Poetry, chapbook, 28 pages, from Bottlecap Features.

all my names in one mouth traces a journey across generations, languages, and geographies—from bound feet in old family stories to bare legs on a Vegas porch. Across these poems, Samantha Yee weaves the stories of ancestors, lovers, and selves into something whole. This is a book about inheritance: not just of bloodlines, but of silence, survivalism, rituals, expectations, and eventually, joy.

Spanning six years of writing, this debut collection moves with the rhythm of a long-held song, repeating, revising, echoing. Recurring motifs of the body, birds, coffee, fire, and home appear like refrains, each time slightly changed. The early poems hum with the ache of assimilation, splitting, and spiritual exile; the later ones find their footing in care, chosen family, and the quiet rebellion of softness. Yee’s voice is intimate and expansive, making space for seasoned poetry readers and newcomers alike. This collection is a roadmap for becoming—an offering to anyone learning to carry their history without being buried by it, and to speak all their names out loud, without apology. Readers of Ocean Vuong, K-Ming Chang, Ina Cariño, and Ada Limón will find a kindred resonance in these pages.

Samantha Yee is a San Francisco-born, Chinese-American poet living in Las Vegas with two huskies and the ghost of a third. She studied English Literature at UC Berkeley and is the founder of WMNCAP, a care-centered financial platform focused on wholeness and collective liberation. Her work lives at the intersection of firecrackers and birdseed, ritual and resistance, survival and sweetness, start-ups and sonnets. She holds multitudes as a UN youth delegate, web designer, and daughter. You can find her at samanthajyee.webflow.io/about. This is her first published collection of poems.