The Deep Zoo

Ducornet's work grounds and is the matriarch to a younger generation of edgy, feminist women writers concerned with the body, the erotic, the alchemy of creativity, and art-she is the precursor to Maggie Nelson and others, and should animate their audiences, giving them a new dimension to books they already know and loveDucornet's essays explore the same territory that grounds her novels, and in similarly lush, carefully drawn prose. Fans of her fiction will find the book engrossing in the same way. Ducornet has a strong review track recordDucornet is an internationally exhibited painter and illustrator as well, and there's a great deal of interest here for readers interested in her as a visual artist, as well as readers of visual art criticismThese essay find a place on the CHP list with authors like Kate Bernheimer, Anne Waldman, Selah Saterstrom, Brian Evenson... We have a reputation in the visionary and mythic, and she fits right inThere's a lot of great cultural criticism getting attention right now (see the success of White Girls) but this book speaks to that as well as the need for writing that addresses the why and how of art making, not just the art itself.