Poet, novelist, and illustrator Rikki Ducornet, acclaimed for her surrealistic writing, will read from her work as part of the Plutzik Reading Series at 8 p.m. Tuesday, April 1, in the Welles-Brown Room in Rush Rhees Library on the University of Rochester's River Campus.
Ducornet's six volumes of poetry, which she illustrated herself, include The Cult of Seizure. Her first four novels form a quartet of the basic elements of earth, fire, water, and air: The Stain, Entering Fire, The Fountains of Neptune, and The Jade Cabinet.
The Los Angeles Times named Ducornet's 1999 novel revolving around the Marquis de Sade, The Fan-Maker's Inquisition, as Best Book of the Year. Her other works include a book of short stories, The Complete Butcher's Tales, and a collection of essays, The Monstrous and the Marvelous. She also has illustrated books for other authors, including Jorge Luis Borges.
Ducornet was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1994 and received a Lannan Fellowship in 1993. Her novel Gazelle will be published by Knopf in July. She lives in Denver, where she has taught creative writing at the University of Denver.
The Plutzik Series is one of the country's oldest and most prestigious literary reading programs. Established to honor the work of Hyam Plutzik, a distinguished poet and Deane Professor of Poetry and Rhetoric at the University, it has featured more than 175 noted writers, including Pulitzer Prize winners Anthony Hecht, Elizabeth Bishop, Robert Lowell, Gwendolyn Brooks, Richard Wilbur, and Galway Kinnell. The Plutzik Series is administered by the Department of English. For more information, call (585) 275-4092.