Golden Ax - Rio Cortez

Written by Rio Cortez
Read by Rio Cortez
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 64 Kbps
Unabridged

Longlisted for the 2022 National Book Award for Poetry

Longlisted for the 2023 PEN Open Book Award

Finalist for the Poetry Society of America’s Norma Farber First Book Award

“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.”—Roxane Gay, author of Hunger

“I’ve never read anything like it. Truly a sublime experience.”—Jason Reynolds, author of Ain’t Burned All the Bright

A groundbreaking collection about Afropioneerism past and present from Pushcart Prize-nominated poet and New York Times bestselling author Rio Cortez

From a visionary writer praised for her captivating work on Black history and experience comes a poetry collection exploring personal, political, and artistic frontiers, journeying from her family’s history as “Afropioneers” in the American West to shimmering glimpses of transcendent, liberated futures.

In poems that range from wry, tongue-in-cheek observations about contemporary life to more nuanced meditations on her ancestors—some of the earliest Black pioneers to settle in the western United States after Reconstruction—Golden Ax invites listeners to re-imagine the West, Black womanhood, and the legacies that shape and sustain the pursuit of freedom.

Length: 1 hr and 5 mins
Release date: 08-30-22