Rikki Ducornet

Rikki Ducornet born Erica DeGre, (born April 191949) in Canton, New York is an American postmodernist, writer, poet, and artist. Her 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 North America after accepting a teaching position in the English Department at The University of Denver. In 2007, she accepted a position as Writer in Residence at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. [Gregory, Sindra. "Finding a Language: Introducing Rikki Ducornet" "The Review of Contemporary Fiction" Fall 1998. ]

In the March 24, 2006 issue of Entertainment Weekly, in an article titled "Back To Annandale", it was revealed that Ducornet was the apparent inspiration for the 1974 Steely Dan hit "Rikki Don't Lose That Number", due to a friendship songwriter Donald Fagen had with Ducornet while he attended Bard. Ducornet was pregnant and married at the time, but recalls Fagen did give her his phone number at a college party while attending Bard. Although Fagen himself would not confirm the story, Ducornet was quoted that she believed she was indeed the subject of the song. [ [http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,1174152_3,00.html The origins of Steely Dan | Donald Fagen | Pop Culture News | News | Entertainment Weekly | 3 ] ]

Bibliography

Novels

"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 IL (1992)

"The Jade Cabinet" Dalkey Archive Press, Normal IL (1993)

"Phosphor in Dreamland" Dalkey Archive Press, Normal IL (1995)

"The Fan-Maker's Inquisition" Henry Holt, New York (1999)

"Gazelle" Alfred A. Knopf, New York (2003)

hort Fiction Collections

The Complete Butcher's Tales (1994)

The Word 'Desire' (1997)

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 BC (1976)

"Knife Notebook" (as "Rikki") Fiddlehead Poetry Books, Vanouver BC (1977)

"The Illustrated Universe" (as "Rikki") Aya Press, Toronto (1979)

"The Cult of Seizure" The Porcupine's Quill, Erin ONT (1989)

Essays

"The Monstrous and the Marvelous" City Lights, San Francisco (1999)

Anthologies Edited

"" edited by Geoff Hancock & Rikki Ducornet, Aya Press, Toronto (1984)

Children's Books

"The Blue Bird" Adaptation by Erica ("Rikki") Ducornet of Mme. D'Aulnoy's old French Tale, with pictures by Erica ("Rikki") Ducornet Alfred A. Knopf, New York (1970)

"Shazira Shazam and the Devil" by Erica ("Rikki") and Guy Ducornet, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs NJ (1972)

Illustrations

Robert Coover, Spanking the Maid (1981)

Jorge Luis Borges Tlön, Uqbar and Orbis Tertius (1983)

Karen Elizabeth Gordon, Torn Wings and Faux Pas (1997)

References