Golden Ax Audiobook By Rio Cortez cover art

Golden Ax

Penguin Poets

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Golden Ax

By: Rio Cortez
Narrated by: Rio Cortez
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About this listen

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.

©2022 Rio Cortez (P)2022 Penguin Audio
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Critic reviews

Named one of the Best Books of 2022 by The Houston Chronicle

Named one of the "Books We Love" by NPR

“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.”—NPR, “Books We Love”

“[Golden Ax] advances an intriguing, revolutionary argument: that the present is not simply a product of what has come before, but engaged in a constant, generative conversation with the past; that the past, in some ways, might be formed by what is to come. Sinuous and beautifully crafted, even the negative space on these pages transmits a complementary narrative of loss and yearning. Cortez alters both her own past, and ours, by acknowledging her people, integrating them into our present tense, and projecting them into a future in which true freedom might be possible.” —Tope Folarin, Vulture

“Cortez examines how her family came to the American West after Reconstruction—and reimagines the landscape through the lens of Black people who both embody and defy its realities. In the process, we are pushed to envision our own futures on the frontier, united by a collective aspiration to freedom.”—Essence

Featured Article: Celebrate 10 Afro-Latino Authors This Latino & Hispanic Heritage Month


This Hispanic Heritage Month, dive into a vibrant celebration of Latino culture that has been curated just for you. For this collection, we compiled some of our favorite audiobooks from Afro-Latino authors, some of which explore the Afro-Latino experience in depth. As we shine a much-needed light on the intersection between Black and Latino identity, we are honored to share these unique voices and powerful perspectives in America today.

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Absolutely wonderful!

This collection of poetry takes you on a journey to places I hadn't imagined but felt like I was there while listening!

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