Dan Domench is an American short story writer, playwright, and screenwriter. He is known for the chapbook Three American One Act Monologues (Coyote Love Press), and two audio collections of stories he wrote, directed and produced, Hold Me Fast and Wayside Cross, both performed largely by non-professionals, including neurodiverse actors. He adapted short stories from the audio and added new stories for two self-published collections Hold Me Fast and Beauty Strip. He published over 40 fiction stories in Portland Monthly Magazine (Maine) and wrote uncredited screenplays for Konner-Rosenthal Productions at Universal and at Raleigh Studios Paramount.
Domench was born in Stockton, California. The grandson of Basque and Irish immigrants he attended Catholic schools. While a high school student he wrote and directed plays and dramatic readings in the community and wrote for an underground newspaper. He was admitted into Saint Mary’s College as a conditional student and studied under the novelist Chester Aaron and poet Robert Hass. At SMC he was a student body officer for two years and produced rock, folk, and art events. He wrote a short novel Rabbit Road which was his application for the University of Iowa Writers Workshop Master of Fine Arts program where he studied under John Irving, Stanley Elkin, and Raymond Carver. He and Carver, among other adventures, drove from Iowa to California. Their friendship is noted in Raymond Carver: A Writers Life by Carol Sklenicka. Domench has been sober and drug-free since 1978.
He received a Master of Science in Education from the University of Maine and worked as a counselor for many years including attending to addicted patients in a locked psychiatric unit.
In addition to his plays and literary fiction, he writes and publishes comedy crime fiction under the pen name A. A. Aritz.
Domench hikes the northern mountains. He stays in close contact with his adult stepdaughter and two adult sons. He lives in Maine with his partner.