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
âOutstanding . . . the poetry in these pages is intelligent, lyrical, as invested in the past as the present and future with witty nods to pop culture.â âRoxane Gay, author of Hunger
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âIâve never read anything like it. Truly a sublime experience.â âJason Reynolds, author of Ainât 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.Â
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In poems that range from wry, tongue-in-cheek observations about contemporary life to more nuanced meditations on her ancestorsâsome of the earliest Black pioneers to settle in the western United States after ReconstructionâGolden Ax invites readers to re-imagine the West, Black womanhood, and the legacies that shape and sustain the pursuit of freedom.