A guy is swimming towards me. Gray hair, gray goatee. I am in the shallow end of an indoor pool. My six-year-old son is in my arms. My thirteen-year-old son is standing on the concrete behind me. The man says, “Where did you drive in from?:Whenever someone is speaking to me in a language that […]
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People are talking about "Hold Me Fast" ! "Dan's writing is evocative, his production has a wonderful, light touch and the performances in these recordings bring even more life into this cycle of lively monologues. Like us, he is exclusively in audio"
Daren Wang, Editor of Verb AudioQuarterly. The audio literary magazine (www.verb.org)
"Besides the 10 talented voices, subtle background sounds, and somber musical segues, listeners will be drawn to the writing of these performances.... One won't soon find an audiobook that is this dark and sad while also being hopeful and optimistic."
Audiofile Magazine April/May 06
"These powerful and painfully beautiful monologues by Dan Domench are songs of the marginalized American male and female, old and young, with troubles so skillfully and so simply and so eloquently articulated they bring you to your knees. You can't listen to them without being moved, if you have the heart to hear them through to the end."
Dennis Sampson's most recent books are "Needlegrass" published by Carniege Mellon Press and "For My Father Falling Asleep At Saint Mary's Hospital" published by Milkweed Editions Press.
"There is a train in one of these stories that goes roaring past in the middle of the night with a white light flashing and the sound of metal grinding and it is terrible because for the characters at that moment - they are a young couple making love for the first time - it is a metaphor for life, and at the moment the reader believes it too and thinks, like the characters, "Oh no, oh jesus christ no." These stories are talking blues. They are what people tell themselves and each other to keep going. And we hear them as if we were better listeners than we ever really are, and they hold us poised listening at just the point when attention has become so complete it has not yet quite become terror of pity, which is why, I suppose, the stories are also a little funny and oddly beautiful. Dan Domench is an absolutely convincing writer."Robert Hass, Past US Poet Laureate, and author of "Twentieth Century Pleasures" writing about the story "Covered Bridge" included in HOLD ME FAST.
Hear Dan's interview with Maine Public Broadcasting Network radio host Keith Shortall:"Writer Dan Domench of Union has earned critical praise for his ability to bring fictional characters to life--on CD. His new audiobook of ten short stories, titled "Hold Me Fast," is read by actors with roots in Maine, who together help create a familiar small town through spoken word."
http://www.mpbn.net/asx/050516domench.asx
(Windows Medial Player needed for playback)
"Dan Domench's work haunts, sings, slides under skin... something alive there... in the dark...Voices. Streams. Bridges. The body's steam. Somewhere between sex, voices, and silences. Here is a highly resonant, compelling, unforgettable work... from a writer and observer of the world and of the minds in it... here he documents things behind the seeing... a writer who speaks of bodies. Voices. A house by a river. An unlit Church there - in the dark."
Marian Haddad, Poet and essayist, "Saturn Falling Down" and "Somewhere between Mexico and a River Called Home", Pecan Grove Press.
"Dan Domench writes beautiful and memorable stories told in equally unforgettable - and true - voices. You owe it to yourself to hear Hold Me Fast."
Laurence N. Moffi, "A Citizen's Handbook", poems, Orchises Press, "Crossing the Line: Black Major Leaguers 1949-1957", University of Nebraska Press, and "The Conscience of the Game", University of Nebraska Press in 2006.
"Dan Domench goes into that lonely place - breaks into that lonely place - and even comes out with the dirty ashtrays. He'll find you in there, too."
Colin Sargent is the author of "Blush" and "Undertow" published by Coyote Love Press, past winner of the Maine Arts Fellowship in Poetry, and
Editor and Publisher of Portland Monthly Magazine"These stories are quite simply the best I’ve encountered in years, and in a form that moves the American short story into a whole new territory. There is a level of maturity, even mastery in these stories, and they fit into a context, come from a lineage, and to my mind Dan Domench is taking his proper place among the finest of our writers."
Alfred DePew, author of "Wild and Woolly: A Journal Keeper's Handbook" and the collection of short stories "The Melancholy of Departure" that won the Flannery O'Connor Award.
"We yearn for truth, all mind and flesh of it. So, too, when pummeled by imperialistic lies, both domestic and foreign, we turn our burning ears toward Domench and his cast — the virtually anonymous, powerful weak, and victimized hero/heroines—who exude probity, loyalty, and affection in mind-bending/body defying acts of compassion, redemption, and je ne sais quoi."
Mark Melnicove, author of "Advanced Memories", poet and artist, and founder of
Tillbury House Press.Review featured on front page of Portland Phoenix
"A thrilling collection of voices."Sam Pfeifle, from his review of "Hold Me Fast" for the Portland Phoenix. Click Here to read the full article.
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Jun
10
WHERE DID YOU DRIVE IN FROM?
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Jun
4
I thought I was dead already. You walked in and looked at the empty bed and didn’t look around. I thought, okay, I’m not here any more.
But you see me. In this terrible chair. They make me sit on this in the shower. They won’t let me stand. They took away my last pleasure, the […]
Jun
3
WALLS OF BOOKS
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New York Magazine recently asked 60 literary critics to name one novel of the last decade that they thought was important, but overlooked and forgotten. It is a compelling list. There are so many great writers and little time to read them. I felt overwhelmed after reading the list and a memory came to […]
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HOLD ME FAST
The debut audiobook in the Speedway Six series. 10 stories. 10 actors. Available for purchase online here!
