Rikki Ducornet (; born Erica DeGre,[citation needed] April 19, 1943 in Canton, New York) is an American writer, poet, and artist. She was a recipient of a Lannan Literary Award.

Biography [ edit ]

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 Annandale-on-Hudson, in New York, earning a B.A. in Fine Arts from the same institution in 1964.[1] 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 the United States after accepting a teaching position in the English Department at the University of Denver.[2] In 2007, she replaced retired Dr. Ernest Gaines as Writer in Residence at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.[3]

Ducornet is the subject of the Steely Dan song "Rikki Don't Lose That Number." Steely Dan singer Donald Fagen had met her while both were attending Bard College. Ducornet says they met at a college party, and even though she was both pregnant and married at the time, he gave her his number. Ducornet was intrigued by Fagen and was tempted to call him, but she decided against it.[4]

Awards [ edit ]

Bibliography [ edit ]

Novels

Short fiction collections

The Butcher's Tales (1980)

(1980) The Complete Butcher's Tales (1994)

(1994) The Word 'Desire' (1997)

(1997) The One Marvelous Thing (2008)

Poetry

Essays

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

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)

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