Michael Downing’s novels include the national bestseller Perfect Agreement, named one of the 10 Best Books of the year by Amazon.com and Newsday, and Breakfast with Scot, a comedy about two gay men who inadvertently become guardians of a young boy with a fondness for make-up and boas. An American Library Association honor book, Breakfast with Scot has been adapted as a movie, which won the endorsement of the National Hockey League and the participation of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Michael's nonfiction includes Shoes Outside the Door: Desire, Devotion, and Excess at San Francisco Zen Center, hailed by the New York Review of Books as a "dramatic and insightful" narrative history of the first Buddhist monastery outside of Asia, and by the Los Angeles Times as "a highly readable book, important for the healing it invites in giving voice to the thoughts and feelings of Zen Center members who have remained silent until now," and Spring Forward: The Annual Madness of Daylight Saving Time, a history of clocks, Congress, and confusion that is "perceptive" (Wall Street Journal), "zany" (The New Republic), and "fun to read" (Associated Press). His most recent book is a memoir, Life with Sudden Death: A Tale of Moral Hazard and Medical Misadventure.

Michael teaches creative writing at Tufts University. In addition to his books, he has written two plays, and his essays and reviews appear in the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and other periodicals.

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