Domench, Dan (1951 - )

Genre: Drama/Theatre/Film, Short Stories

Playwright and short story writer Dan Domench, who lives now in Hope, Maine, moved to Portland, Maine in 1979 after living in San Francisco, Iowa City, Los Angeles, and the village of Rochester in northern Alberta, Canada. A second generation American, the son of a Basque father and an Irish mother, he grew up in the San Joaquin Valley of California. While writing, he has worked in a lumber mill, bar tended, drove a mail truck, owned a rock music booking agency, picked fruit, operated a forklift, assembled farm equipment, and assisted released prisoners to maintain their terms of parole.

His stories have been published in Portland Monthly, Puckerbrush and the USM literary magazine. A showcase of his monologues was produced off-Broadway at the Westside Theater. Domench collaborated with Maine musician Peter Gallway on two musicals, 'Testify' (1984) and 'Sonny's Wedding' (1986), and he served as Theater Director of The Maine Festival for 1982 and 1983. He also created and performed a series of pieces for Maine Public Radio's 'All Things Considered' (1987).

Selected Bibliography

  • Inside Vacationland: New Fiction from the Real Maine (1985), edited by Maine writer Mark Melnicove;
  • Three American One-Act Monologues (1983)a chapbook was praised on the back cover by Raymond Carver and Robert Haas
  • Hold Me Fast (2005) audio book with 10 monologues/stories performed by various artists

Selected Resources