Rikki Ducornet (born Erika DeGre, April 19, 1943, in Canton, New York) is an American postmodernist, writer, poet, and artist.
Ducornet’s father was a professor of sociology, and her mother hosted community-interest programs on radio and television. Ducornet grew up on the campus of Bard College in New York, earning a B.A. in Fine Arts from the same institution in 1964. While at Bard she met Robert Coover and Robert Kelly, two authors who shared Ducornet’s fascination with metamorphosis and provided early models of how fiction might express this interest.
In 1972 she moved to the Loire Valley in France with her then husband, Guy Ducornet. In 1988 she won a Bunting Institute fellowship at Radcliffe. In 1989 she moved back to North America after accepting a teaching position in the English Department at The University of Denver. In 2007, she replaced retired Dr. Ernest Gaines as Writer in Residence at the University of Louisiana. In 2008, The American Academy of Arts and Letters conferred upon her one of the eight annual Academy Awards presented to writers.
Books in order of publication:
Novels
The Elements tetralogy:
The Stain, Chatto & Windus, London (1984); Grove Press, New York (1984); revised edition Dalkey Archive Press, Normal IL (1995)
Entering Fire, Chatto & Windus, London (1986); City Lights, San Francisco (1986)
The Fountains of Neptune, McClelland & Steward, Toronto (1989); Dalkey Archive Press, Normal, Illinois (1992)
The Jade Cabinet, Dalkey Archive Press, Normal, Illinois (1993)
Phosphor in Dreamland, Dalkey Archive Press, Normal, Illinois (1995)
The Fan-Maker’s Inquisition, Henry Holt, New York (1999)
Gazelle, Alfred A. Knopf, New York (2003)
Netsuke: a novel, Coffee House Press, Minneapolis (2011)
Brightfellow: a novel, Coffee House Press, Minneapolis (2016)
Trafik: A Novel in Warp Drive, Coffee House Press, Minneapolis (2021)
The Plotinus, Coffee House Press, Minneapolis (2023)
Short fiction collections
The Butcher’s Tales (1980)
The Complete Butcher’s Tales (1994)
The Word ‘Desire’ (1997)
The One Marvelous Thing (2008)
Poetry
From The Star Chamber (as “Rikki”) Fiddlehead Poetry Books, Fredericton NB (1974)
Wild Geraniums Actual Size Press, London (1975)
Bouche a Bouche by Guy Ducornet & Rikki, Soror, Paris (1975)
Weird Sisters (as “Rikki”) Intermedia, Vancouver (1976)
Knife Notebook (as “Rikki”) Fiddlehead Poetry Books, Vancouver (1977)
The Illustrated Universe (as “Rikki”) Aya Press, Toronto (1979)
The Cult of Seizure The Porcupine’s Quill, Erin, Ontario (1989)
Essays
The Monstrous and the Marvelous City Lights, San Francisco (1999)
The Deep Zoo Coffee House Press, Minneapolis (2015)
Anthologies edited
Shoes & Shit: Stories for Pedestrians edited by Geoff Hancock & Rikki Ducornet, Aya Press, Toronto (1984)
Children’s books
The Blue Bird Adaptation of Mme. D’Aulnoy’s old French fairy tale, Alfred A. Knopf, New York (1970)
Shazira Shazam and the Devil by Erica and Guy Ducornet, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey (1972)
Illustrations
Spanking the Maid by Robert Coover (1981)
Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius by Jorge Luis Borges (1983)
Torn Wings and Faux Pas by Karen Elizabeth Gordon (1997)
Horse, Flower, Bird by Kate Bernheimer (2010)
Oak Lawn Library Friends 