Michael Downing (writer)

A native of Pittsfield, Massachusetts,^[1] and a graduate of Harvard University,^[4] Downing wrote for various magazines before publishing his debut novel A Narrow Time in 1987.^[5] He followed up with Mother of God in 1990,^[6] and Perfect Agreement in 1997.^[7]

He joined Tufts University in 1998, after several years teaching at Wheelock College.^[8]

His later books included the novels The Chapel (2015)^[9] and Still in Love (2019),^[10] the non-fiction books Shoes Outside the Door: Desire, Devotion, and Excess at San Francisco Zen Center (2001)^[11] and Spring Forward: The Annual Madness of Daylight Saving Time (2005),^[12] and the personal memoir Life with Sudden Death: A Tale of Moral Hazard and Medical Misadventure (2009).^[13] The memoir addressed his experiences learning that he suffered from the same genetic heart defect that had caused the sudden deaths of his father and older brother, and his decision to mitigate the risk by having surgery to receive an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator.^[14]

Downing met his partner Peter Bryant in 1982.^[1] The couple legally married in 2013.^[1]