Ronald Sukenick, 72; Writer, Critic Was a Groundbreaker in Postmodernist Literature

NEW YORK — Ronald Sukenick, a pioneer in the field of American postmodernist literature since the publication of his first work in 1968, has died. He was 72.

Sukenick died Thursday at his home in New York. He had been diagnosed in 1992 with inclusion body myositis, a degenerative muscle disease.

The writer published about a dozen works of fiction and literary criticism, starting with his novel “Up” in 1968. The playful book features an author named Ronnie Sukenick who is writing a novel. It ends with the words: “I’m going to finish this today.... I’ve had enough of this. I’m just playing with words anyway, what did you think I was doing?”

He continued the self-parody in his next book, published a year later, “The Death of the Novel, and Other Stories.”

A New York Times reviewer reacted to that book in Sukenick mode: “The Reviewer wishes that Mr. Sukenick were not as interesting as Mr. Sukenick thinks he is. But Mr. Sukenick has an enormous amount of talent, and therefore is interesting, and the Reviewer begrudges him that.”

Other Sukenick titles include “Mosaic Man,” “98.6,” and “Cows.” His last work is scheduled to be published in the fall, according to his family.

Born in Brooklyn, Sukenick was a champion of structural innovation in contemporary writing, encouraging writers to find new forms and voices with which to express themselves. He was a founding member of the Fiction Collective, an alternative press started in 1974.

He created the American Book Review in 1977 and had been publisher of Black Ice, a magazine for innovative writing, since 1988.

In 2002, he was awarded the prestigious Morton Dauwen Zabel Award by the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. He was also a winner of an American Book Award.

Sukenick had a doctorate in English literature from Brandeis University and held posts there and at other universities and colleges, including Sarah Lawrence, Cornell and the University of Colorado.

He was also a member of the Authors League of America, the National Book Critics Circle and the Coordinating Council of Literary Magazines.

The author is survived by his wife, writer Julia Frey, and his sister, Gloria Sukenick. He was divorced from his first wife, poet Lynn Luria, who died in 1996.