What's new

10.2.26: New journalism for BmoreArt, introducing Ed Berlin's love letter to his home: Baltimore Scrapbook.

9.19.26: The Baltimore Review takes the stage at the Baltimore Book Festival for readings and conversations involving five contributors, including Michael. Visit with them at the Peabody Heights Stage, at Peabody Heights Brewing, Saturday, Sept. 19, 11 a.m.

6.22.26: The Maryland State Arts Council included Michael among 160 state artists to receive an Individual Artist Grant. More than 1,000 Maryland artists submitted applications. State taxpayers in Maryland support the arts in a variety of ways, including providing $400,000 a year in individual grants.

4.11.26: The Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance named finalists in artistic categories competing for the Baker Artist Awards, and Michael is listed with five other writers in the literary category. Congratulations also to Ashley Elizabeth, Edgar Kunz, Don Lee, Bry Reed, and Justin Sirois. The finalists will appear at the April 11 CityLit Festival at Maryland Center for History and Culture.

4.11.26: Michael will join a panel at CityLit Project's annual festival to discuss AI's impacts on writing and the writing profession, April 11 at Maryland Center for History and Culture.

2.12.26: In "Report," published by The Missouri Review, a hidden painting comes to light in a Kraków courtyard and reveals much about children and war.

1.11.26: "Am I happy to be aging?" Michael asks in a new reported essay published by AARP: The Magazine for its members. "In Sync in All Things–Except Aging," Michael visits with couples who are aging at different paces.

12.18.24: "The Head of St. Denis," Michael's first comic book story, makes its "haunting" debut in Savage Sword of Conan #6, from Titan Comics. Available digitally and in print.

4.20.24: Michael and other finalists in the literary arts category for the Baker Awards appear in an artists showcase at the ever-wonderful CityLitFest at the Meyerhoff Hall.

Dark Agnes from Titan Comics, art by Piotr Kowalski, story by Michael Downs

At Massolit Books in Kraków, hosted by poet and scholar Michał Choiński, Michael presents a tale stemming from his time as a Fulbright Scholar.

Visiting with one-time student and friend Brendan Leonard (left) at Brendan's Washington D.C. reading for his new book, Ultra-Something.

Interviews and ephemera

11.27.24: A former student – now colleague, friend, and role model – wrote about how he learned to follow his own writing path – and he mentions that Michael did the same. "The Art of Staying in Your Lanes" by Brendan Leonard at semi-rad.com. 

9.26.24: "It’s easy and maybe fun to tally the ways that a place and its people are extreme or bizarre or unhinged. What’s harder is to understand why those people are on the list, and why those of us who write it might find our names there too." Los Angeles Review of Books publishes my review of "A Race to the Bottom of Crazy."

2.2.24: "Capote’s appearance–rambling and spiced with F-bombs–lasted only 10 minutes. The abrupt ending made for sensational headlines nationwide." Baltimore Magazine publishes my behind-the-scenes look at the night Truman Capote came to Towson University, cursed out the audience, and publicly proclaimed his alcoholism.

2.2.24: "To wrestle with Mencken is also to wrestle with the United States and American culture—and not just as it was in his time. To wrestle with Mencken is to wrestle with the country and the culture as it is now."
Los Angeles Review of Books publishes Michael's essay about the place of H.L. Mencken, the Sage of Baltimore, in contemporary culture.


10.25.23: The Southern Review's Zach Shultz asks questions about my essay, "Answer When You Can."

7.18.23: The marvelous writer and journalist Cila Warncke and I chatted about writing and teaching for her blog.

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