Rikki Ducornet is a magical surrealist, postmodern fabulist, multi-talented artist and poet, and author of several novels ripe with epicurean vocabulary, vivid and outrageous imagery, fantastically arcane trivia and erudition, and Rabelaisian re-imaginings of history, among them the Carteresque hellfire of The Stain, the Lewis Carroll homage and wonder-of-wonders The Jade Cabinet, and the beautiful, slowly unfurling heart-attack, Netsuke. Across her career, spanning four decades, Ducornet has pursued her inexhaustible obsession with Eros, the violence of the Marquis de Sade and other monsters, and the enchantment of the wunderkammern. The fourth VP festschrift, including critical essays, personal memoirs, fiction homages, and two in-depth interviews, explores Ducornet's passions and obsessions, with particular attention to her novels, illuminating the unforgettable work of a "linguistically explosive" author whose "vocabulary sweats with a kind of lyrical heat" (NY Times). CONTRIBUTORS: Forrest Aguirre, Ricco Barbels, Mary Caponegro, Robert Coover, Rikki Ducornet, Tammy Dasti, Michael J. Emmons, Brian Evenson, Allan Guttmann, Randall Heath, Lily Hoang, Joanna Howard, Laird Hunt, Carolyn Kuebler, Nadine Mainold, Steven Moore, Warren Motte, Tod Rise, Michelle Ryan-Sautour, Eleni Sikelianos, Raymond L. Williams, and Igo Wodan.
"For those who know her, Rikki Ducornet's very name signifies enchantment and her works induce a state of rapture." -- Michael Silverblatt, KCRW Bookworm
"The Complete Butcher's Tales is one of my all-time favorite books, but I love Rikki Ducornet's entire body of work. This festschrift, this wonderful book, is above all a place to think about Rikki -- to shine a bright, grateful light on her Vision. The contributors have done a miraculous job celebrating the work of an unspeakably beautiful, significant artist, thinker, and friend." --Kate Bernheimer, author of Horse, Flower, Bird
