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Michael Downs

@michaeldowns.bsky.social

240 followers 160 following 300 posts

Writer. A few books, plenty of journalism, and a fascination with the song "Sitting on Top of the World." http://michael-downs.net "It is not time that is lacking, only focus." – Zagajewski

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Michael Downs @michaeldowns.bsky.social · Jan 15

Updated my author website. New landing page, new art. Please do send a DM should you find a typo.

Michael Downs | writer

The internet home of Michael Downs, author of the forthcoming novel, THE STRANGE AND TRUE TALE OF HORACE WELLS, SURGEON DENTIST

www.michael-downs.net

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Michael Downs @michaeldowns.bsky.social · 17h

This proud @uarizona.bsky.social alum (Class of '86) is looking at you, President Garimella. Reject the compact now.

Senator Chris Van Hollen @vanhollen.senate.gov · 18h

This is what courage in the face of authoritarianism looks like. No university should take Trump's bribe & surrender their integrity — bending the knee to a bully only feeds the beast & puts ALL our rights at risk.

Others should follows MIT’s example ASAP.

MIT rejects Trump administration deal for priority federal funding

MIT is one of the nine schools that were asked to agree to adopt conservative priorities and policies in exchange for funding perks.

www.washingtonpost.com

Michael Downs @michaeldowns.bsky.social · 20h

"Act and do and make and choose" has become my mantra.

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Michael Downs @michaeldowns.bsky.social · 21h

I would expect you more to write a piece like this one funny, thoughtful one. A friend was dying of cancer and still figuring out how and why to work. The cancer killed her, but she kept working right up until the end. And she even attempted to justify not working! therumpus.net/2018/11/06/w...

Writing When Your Life Depends on It - The Rumpus

Do I want to live, or do I want to write? Sometimes I think it’s that simple.

therumpus.net

Reposted by Michael Downs

Melanie Jackson @mjjaxn.bsky.social · 3d

“The boundaries which divide Life from Death are at best shadowy and vague. Who shall say where the one ends, and where the other begins?”
Edgar Allan Poe died today in1849 in Baltimore.

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Reposted by Michael Downs

Patch Zircher @patrickzircher.bsky.social · 3d

Reading White, Latino, Asian, Black, Man, Woman, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Jewish-- we are remarkably alike in the printed word. In sharing our experiences, we're talking about the outside.
Our inner voice, our happiness & despair, is universal.
This is why people who want to divide us attack books.

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Michael Downs @michaeldowns.bsky.social · 4d

pen.org/report/the-n...

The Normalization of Book Banning

This report offers a window into the complex and extensive climate of censorship between July 1, 2024 through June 30, 2025.

pen.org

Michael Downs @michaeldowns.bsky.social · 4d

For #BannedBooksWeek, I'm for the first time reading this "horrorshow," the most banned book in the U.S. in 2025, per Pen America. Stephen King is the most banned author. I used to think Banned Books Week was a way to remind ourselves not to fall into a bad old history. Yet, here we are.

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Michael Downs @michaeldowns.bsky.social · Sep 7

No #SundaySentence this week. Instead, here's a scene from a literary talk featuring writer Debra Spark in the barn at Good Contrivance Farm. I suppose the luna moth is a fine sentence.

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Reposted by Michael Downs

Jenny Staff Johnson @htownjenny.bsky.social · Aug 27

I want the USA to be free from the poison of guns so badly

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Reposted by Michael Downs

Moo Dog Press @moodogpress.com · Aug 27

“There is a crime here that goes beyond denunciation. There is a sorrow here that weeping cannot symbolize. There is a failure here that topples all our success.”

John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath

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Reposted by Michael Downs

Jude Hopkins @heyjudenotjudy.bsky.social · Aug 26

Politico estimates the cost of the Nat'l Guard in L.A. to have been $134 million.

Cost of deployment in Washington, D.C., is estimated to be $1 million a day.

Now, if he goes into Chicago and other blue-state cities?

That's a lot of Medicaid, a lot of food stamps, a lot of grants for art ... .

What’s the cost of the National Guard deployment in DC? - WTOP News

D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton is calling for the Pentagon to provide an estimate of the cost of deploying 2,000 National Guard personnel in the District during the federal law enforcement surge ...

wtop.com

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Michael Downs @michaeldowns.bsky.social · Aug 25

Joining others who point out the inaccuracy of this headline. He didn't turn himself in; he arrived for an immigration-enforcement required interview. There, he was taken into custody without stated reason. You only "turn yourself in" when wanted by police authorities for a crime. Do better, CNN.

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Michael Downs @michaeldowns.bsky.social · Aug 24

He looked at me like I was his spanking newborn baby and he did love me so, but feared the world would never be what any of us had hoped for.

–a daughter recalls her father in this #SundaySentence from Barbara Kingsolver's novel, The Poisonwood Bible.

Michael Downs @michaeldowns.bsky.social · Aug 22

Hey, #NEA. Go ahead and yank annual funding for creative writing. Maybe spend that $875k on Diet Coke for the West Wing. But for F's sake, don't capitulate to the tyrant's gold-plated vanity by capitalizing "administration."

Unless it's at the start of a sentence, which this is not.

Michael Downs @michaeldowns.bsky.social · Aug 21

Read what @semi-rad.com writes. Your day will be better for it.
semi-rad.com/2025/08/the-...

The Usual – Semi-Rad.com

semi-rad.com

Michael Downs @michaeldowns.bsky.social · Aug 18

"The Woeful Angels" is a band name or the title of an unpublished Kundera manuscript.

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Michael Downs @michaeldowns.bsky.social · Aug 17

"Grandma can't fall asleep without the noise of the table saw."

– a #SundaySentence from the remarkable novel VORACIOUS by Małgorzata Lebda, translated by @antonialloydjones.bsky.social. Published by @lindeneditions.bsky.social

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Michael Downs @michaeldowns.bsky.social · Aug 14

Inspiration surrounds you!

Reposted by Michael Downs

Baltimore Review @baltimorereview.bsky.social · Aug 14

Announcing a special micro category for the Baltimore Review fall issue: 400 words max, one or two micros in one sub, micro submission period (9/1 – 9/14) and response by 9/30. Payment for accepted work at our usual rate. Because we love the short and surprising. baltimorereview.org

The Baltimore Review

A journal of poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction

baltimorereview.org

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Michael Downs @michaeldowns.bsky.social · Aug 14

Where?
(if not a secret...)

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Michael Downs @michaeldowns.bsky.social · Aug 12

"I prefer the hell of chaos to the hell of order."

Possibilities - The Wisława Szymborska Foundation

I prefer movies. I prefer cats. I prefer the oaks along the Warta. I prefer Dickens to Dostoyevsky. I prefer myself liking people to myself loving mankind. I prefer keeping a needle and thread on hand...

www.szymborska.org.pl

Michael Downs @michaeldowns.bsky.social · Aug 11

Of course, Woody Guthrie painted this sentence on his guitar. Here is the writer's version of a guitar. Different, but the same.

Michael Downs @michaeldowns.bsky.social · Aug 11

A good day to remind ourselves:

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Michael Downs @michaeldowns.bsky.social · Aug 10

For me, this will be a must read.

Luke Epplin @lukeepplin.bsky.social · Aug 10

All right, the countdown has begun: Six months from today, my next book, "Moses and the Doctor," will be published. We'll be in page proofs and galleys in September. If you're interested in reviewing or covering the book, shoot me an email (address in my bio) or DM. It's becoming real.

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Michael Downs @michaeldowns.bsky.social · Aug 10

The whole article is nonstop fantastic writing. Incredibly moving, as well.