The Deep Zoo

"The veteran Port Townsend author explores love, violence, dreams, fairy tales and other things in her collection of essays." ?The Seattle Times

Within the writer's life, words and things acquire power. For Borges it is the tiger and the color red, for Cortázar a pair of amorous lions, and for an early Egyptian scribe the monarch butterfly that metamorphosed into the Key of Life. Rikki Ducornet names these powers The Deep Zoo. Her essays take us from the glorious bestiary of Aloys Zötl to Abu Ghraib, from the tree of life to Sade's Silling Castle, from The Epic of Gilgamesh to virtual reality. Says Ducornet, "To write with the irresistible ink of tigers and the uncaging of our own Deep Zoo, we need to be attentive and fearless-above all very curious-and all at the same time."

"Ducornet's skill at drawing unexpected connections, and her ability to move between outrage and meditativeness, are gripping to behold." -Star Tribune

"This collection of essays meditates on art, mysticism, and more; it'll leave a reader with plenty to ponder." -Vol. 1 Brooklyn

"Rikki Ducornet is imagination's emissary to this mundane world." -Stephen Sparks, Green Apple Books on the Park

"This book is like the secret at the heart of the world; I've put other books aside." -Anne Germanacos, author of Tribute