Rio Cortez is the New York Times bestselling author of picture books The ABCs of Black History (Workman, 2020) and The River Is My Sea (S&S, 2024). Her debut poetry collection, Golden Ax, was longlisted for the 2022 National Book Award for Poetry and the Pen America Open Book Award, and was a finalist for Poetry Society of America's Norma Farber First Book Award. It is available now from Penguin Books.
Born and raised in Salt Lake City, she now lives, writes, and works in Harlem.