Rio Cortez

Rio Cortez is the author of Golden Ax (Penguin Poets, 2022), as well as the picture book The ABCs of Black History (Workman, 2020). Her chapbook I Have Learned to Define a Field As a Space Between Mountains won the 2015 Toi Dericotte and Cornelius Eady Chapbook Prize. Her other honors include a Poets & Writers Amy Award, as well as fellowships from Cave Canem, Canto Mundo, The Jerome Foundation, and Poet’s House. Born and raised in Salt Lake City, Cortez holds an MFA in creative writing from New York University and currently lives in Harlem. (Source)

Poems by Rio Cortez

Black Lead in a Nancy Meyers Film by Rio Cortez

October 4, 2022

"Aging, at all. I want that. And to fall / perhaps most honestly in love / beside the ocean" — Rio Cortez

Poems curated by Rio Cortez

For Keeps by Joy Harjo

October 4, 2025

“That night after eating, singing, and dancing / We lay together under the stars. / We know ourselves to be part of mystery.” — Joy Harjo