Rio Cortez
“I think frontier and future—these places that aren't here, places that are somewhere else, somewhere where you're not subjugated, where there's maximum freedom—are extremely compelling to people who have come from a history of enslavement.”
“Outstanding . . . the poetry in these pages is intelligent, lyrical, as invested in the past as the present and future with witty nods to pop culture.”
“Cortez maps untrodden historical and speculative terrain in poems of stunning breadth and intimacy in this exquisite debut . . . reflecting on class, race, and womanhood with wit and lyrical subtlety . . . Unflinching and generous, this bold collection opens new vistas in contemporary Black poetry.”
“With a careful balance of lyric and detail, Cortez considers the pursuit of freedom passed down to her . . . [and] shows us how looking back can be beautiful and how claiming that past is the loudest celebration of it.”
“In rhyming couplets, Cortez leads readers on a journey through Black life that acknowledges pain and struggle while building confidence with examples of triumph. It’s a tricky maneuver when writing for children, but Cortez pulls it off.”
“An impressive array of names, events, and concepts from Black history are introduced in this alphabet book for early-elementary readers... The rhyming verses are light on the tongue, making the reading smooth and soothing. The brightly colored, folk art–style illustrations offer vibrant scenes of historical and contemporary Black life.”
Rio Cortez is a poet and a New York Times bestselling author of picture books. Her debut poetry collection, Golden Ax (Penguin Books, 2022) was longlisted for the National Book Award and the PEN Open Book Award. Her chapbook, I Have Learned to Define a Field As a Space Between Mountains, won the 2015 Toi Derricotte and Cornelius Eady Chapbook Prize. Her children’s books are the New York Times bestselling The ABCs of Black History (Workman, 2020) and the forthcoming The River Is My Sea (Simon & Schuster, 2024). She is a winner of the Poets & Writers Amy Award, and has received fellowships from Poet's House, Cave Canem, the Jerome Foundation, and the CantoMundo Foundation. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in the Los Angeles Review of Books, The Miami Rail, and Mother Magazine, among others.
Asked about the role of imagination in history, the future, and time in general in Golden Ax, Cortez responded, “Our history is told in a way that’s not meant to remember Black people at all, quite frankly. I think one of the cruelest aspects of the transatlantic slave trade is removing a name. So, it’s impossible in some ways by design for Black people to look backward. I think that makes the utility of the imagination even more important. In this collection, a lot of it is oral history, family stories that are retold.”
Cortez holds an MFA in Creative Writing from NYU. By day, she works in sales & marketing at HarperCollins, where she endeavors to amplify the voices and opportunities for BIPOC writers. Born and raised in Salt Lake City, she now lives, writes, and works in Harlem.
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