ALL OF THEM ALL OF THEM by Akira Ritos

In Akira Ritos' debut poetry collection, All of Them All of Them, they explore family, generational trauma, traditions, and grief in their life as a queer Filipino-American. Ritos poses love as obituary, as tattoos, as college parties, as bad Tagalog. As burnt food, lecheflan cravings, and sand in between toes. From invisible letters to the deceased to white dresses and nails, Ritos leaves their audience with the question: what else can we do, if not hope?

Akira Ritos is a queer Filipino & disaster adult residing in the Chicago suburbs. They were previously published in Marias At Sampaguitas, Yuzu Press, the lickety split, and more. In 2023, they received an AWP Honorable Mention in Creative Nonfiction. Find them on Instagram and Twitter @adotocean.

"ALL OF THEM ALL OF THEM is a blurry diasporic dream turned lucid and luminous through clever rhymes and sensory-rich visions. Wielding the familiar in one hand and fading memories in the other, Akira Ritos creates an experience as comforting as it is cutting. Through the scent of peppercorn oil, visions of a dictator's wife looming over history, the sound of roosters drowning out echoes of a Catholic hymn, and the feeling of oiled fingers running down a lover's back, Ritos draws the reader into an intimately crafted world." —Nashira de la Rosa, co-founder of the Adventurer’s Writing Guild and Poetry Orchard

"Akira Ritos’ poetry is dreamy and surreal, full of the quotidian glow of an open refrigerator at 3am, flirting angels, and family ghosts. Throughout this collection, they ask, what of our bodies & selves are part of our families, friends, lovers, countries, language? Part eulogy, part celebration, ALL OF THEM ALL OF THEM crescendos, settles, and climaxes again in a rich meditation on what it means to be queer & Asian, deconstructing “fruit [as] a love language,” and the violence exacted on our communities. Ultimately, Ritos leaves their audience in the joy of wonder, musing that 'Maybe poems / are another way of saying this is heaven  & // the word lesbian is the sound / of love & love & love &'" —Alison Lubar, author of Philosophers Know Nothing About Love, queer feast, sweet euphemism, It Skips a Generation, METAMOURPHOSIS, and The Other Tree

"ALL OF THEM ALL OF THEM by Akira Ritos explores the self as an archive, and embodies how grief and yearning are two sides of the same coin of want. This collection is like a still life painting enveloping you in all its rich details, from fruits at all stages of growth and decay to caught breath behind locked doors. Throughout, Ritos navigates the complexities of familial and queer relationships, and the interactions and inherent change within both. ALL OF THEM ALL OF THEM is a brilliant, glistening debut that makes me think ‘I love being gay and Filipino!’”—Czaerra Galicinao Ucol, author of Pisces Urges

"ALL OF THEM ALL OF THEM is a queer lighthouse, sifting through memory, lessons learned, and grief unearthed. Ritos illuminates our inner world, giving safe harbor to emotions poised to swallow us whole. ALL OF THEM ALL OF THEM moves with the certainty that pain is a part of life, that ‘death touches / us, even when we walk from it,’ but understands that pain transforms, assures us ‘There’ll / always be a place to land. we’ll be home eventually.’” —Christian Aldana, author of The Water We Swim In