English is not Dan’s first language. His family is from Argentina and he is first-generation American, having grown up speaking Spanish. Raised on Long Island, Dan grew to appreciate the rhythm of the English language and the unique flow of life in America. Dan has always been fascinated with the art and craft of storytelling and loves the geometry of telling stories that are at a right angle to expectations. His passion for stories is also reflected in his love for film and theater.
Dan’s brain is always in a state of Jenga-like balance. To counter the creative and writing side, Dan has a B.S. in Chemical Engineering and M.S. in Project Management and works as an environmental engineer when not making up stories.
He has lived outside Syracuse, Princeton, Philadelphia, and New York City. It’s that outsider perspective that has informed a lot of his writing. He currently resides in Ithaca, New York where he shares his life with his wife, three cats and a Wirehaired Pointing Griffon named Emmet, and hopes his two grown children and one step-daughter come visit more often. I mean, would it kill them?
His writing and storytelling are influenced by a mixture of whimsical observations and the writing of P.G. Wodehouse, Michael Chabon, Tom Robbins, Stephen Sondheim, Truman Capote, and Jacque Tati, to name a few. He is currently at work on two novels: Prior Futures, a social satire thriller, and The People From Away, a quirky detective story.
Dan’s stories have appeared in dozens of literary magazines internationally and nationally, including The Wild River Review, Silverthought, The Dirty Pool, Theaker’s Quarterly Fiction, The Duck and Herring Company, The American Drivel Review, Gold Dust Magazine, and Escape Velocity, among others. His short story, “Brain Takes a Sick Day,” was selected for inclusion in the Satirica anthology. His short story, “The Cobbler Cherry,” was included in the anthology, Thank You, Death Robot, which won an Independent Publishing Award for best science-fiction and fantasy and was named a Top Ten Fiction Novel by the Chicago Tribune. He is also the author of numerous novels and screenplays. He is a founding member of the Ambler Writers Group.
He is letting all this go to his head. It’s pretty unbearable.
Regal House Publishing is delighted to be publishing Daniel Kopcow’s short story collection, Worst. Date. Ever., in 2020.
