Lannan Foundation

Rikki Ducornet, Writer - Marfa, Fall 2004

Rikki Ducornet, a cosmopolitan and intellectual artist, has lived in North Africa, South America, France, and Canada. Of her most recent book, Gazelle, the Washington Post writes, “[It] is a sensuous book. A mix of smells pervades its pages, from orange blossoms, perfumes, mint, almonds, limes, roses, jasmine, and long-simmered delicacies to animal dung, vinegar, urine, and long-buried mummies. Great stand-alone sentences are enough to make one’s mouth water.”

Marfa is wonderfully still --but for the sound of its trains (and I really liked that)--it is also riotous with creatures. And because wild things have always been the powers that animate my imagination, I wrote well there. After gazing at the spiders and the birds, and taking in that big sky, a number of characters dropped by—and I could hear their voices distinctly, it was so quiet!-- and was seized by an unexpected book!