https://www.michelledowd.org/home daily 0.75 2025-04-24 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b2d605f7e3c3a4e16b42f7b/2a9addff-d06c-44f8-a5f1-c3c9105be4b8/Time%2Bessay%2BMichelle%2BDowd%2Bphoto%2Bgetty%2Bimages.jpg Home - The Survival Skills I Learned While Growing Up In a Cult READ MORE https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b2d605f7e3c3a4e16b42f7b/371872ba-b1a0-435a-a95c-c990a145ca11/Oldster%2Bessay%2BMichelle%2BDowd.jpg Home - How to Embalm Yourself Before You're Dead READ MORE https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b2d605f7e3c3a4e16b42f7b/1591685171261-Z123JBSVNM531W1MSO4Z/modern+love+michelle+dowd+art+Brian+Rea Home - MODERN LOVE: Love in the Time of Low Expectations Brian Rea https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b2d605f7e3c3a4e16b42f7b/198ef9a7-e03d-4f0e-88ff-dd1695de97ee/Forager%2BMichelle%2BDowd%2BOut%2BNow.png Home - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b2d605f7e3c3a4e16b42f7b/1591916970771-J6PH04AJNPH511IO9SFF/Michelle+Dowd+Writer+Hands+Malas.jpg Home https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b2d605f7e3c3a4e16b42f7b/1712261016700-EFL8GZBEYCSWDC12G130/Michelle-Dowd-Forager-reading-nature.png Home https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b2d605f7e3c3a4e16b42f7b/1712261173398-LD87XL5MFF1MP2ZSH1TH/Michelle-Dowd-Author-Forager-Nature.png Home https://www.michelledowd.org/forager daily 1.0 2024-04-20 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b2d605f7e3c3a4e16b42f7b/64834b20-4646-42b4-b047-e76183b06b5c/Forager%2BMichelle%2BDowd%2BOut%2BNow%2BMarch.png Forager - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b2d605f7e3c3a4e16b42f7b/9969670a-1c9e-4b3f-a365-40064b7eaa7b/Michelle%2BDowd%2BForager%2BSisters%2BOcean%2BFreedom.png Forager - A moving, heartbreaking, and lyrical true story of the author’s escape from an apocalyptic cult—and the survival skills that led to her freedom. My family prepared me for the end of the world, but I know how to survive on what the earth yields. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b2d605f7e3c3a4e16b42f7b/1675124641170-NVZH6B2O87C73ERXYATH/Forager+green.png Forager https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b2d605f7e3c3a4e16b42f7b/1712258091181-AWR3LZFKWY0ICQFSQBF7/Forager+Charcoal+Background.png Forager https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b2d605f7e3c3a4e16b42f7b/1712265550393-EF9IBORF18V7Q8RV9E1X/Michelle-Dowd-Forager-Author-Photo-with-Dogs.png Forager https://www.michelledowd.org/contact daily 0.75 2024-04-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b2d605f7e3c3a4e16b42f7b/1712265103416-DUF3RV24NZ5GEEH8XV5G/Michelle-Dowd-Contact-Image.png Contact https://www.michelledowd.org/publications daily 0.75 2023-04-20 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b2d605f7e3c3a4e16b42f7b/1591691542364-RJS9Y0D2CRCJ2GVES2FU/Michelle+Dowd+EJ+give+my+love+away.png Publications - Why I Give my Love Away. I don’t give love in order to receive love. I love because it’s the air I want to breathe, the world I want to live in. READ MORE https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b2d605f7e3c3a4e16b42f7b/1591691085510-I8FMB7CH2LPPKI3E72PN/michelle+dowd+you+don%27t+need+a+degree.jpeg Publications - You Don’t Need a Degree: And newspapers are dead, so why is journalism even part of the college curriculum? READ MORE https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b2d605f7e3c3a4e16b42f7b/1591686488923-2E71GFE84P7UMPADTNQZ/Catapult+Michelle+Dowd+essay+Caroline+Hernandez+image.jpg Publications - When I Left the Cult I Was Raised In, I Learned What a Family Could Be Spending my childhood preparing for the Apocalypse exacted a price on my ability to trust, particularly in the concept of family. READ MORE https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b2d605f7e3c3a4e16b42f7b/1591691333308-CU1ALNWHRBF9JA46QM8I/Michelle+dowd+how+I+healed.png Publications - How I Healed from Childhood Trauma with Savasana. I didn’t react because I have lain in stillness so many times in savasana and fought the urge to flee, I know what staying feels like. Sitting with pain feels hauntingly familiar. So, I opened the door and let it in. READ MORE https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b2d605f7e3c3a4e16b42f7b/1591691730999-55GJQI0TE6QU0HQG0ZVP/Michelle+Dowd+EJ+growing+up.png Publications - How Growing Up in my Dad’s Gruff, Scary World taught me to Land on my Feet (Every Single Time). There are only a few phrases my father has ever spoken aloud to me. “I love you” is not one of them. READ MORE https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b2d605f7e3c3a4e16b42f7b/1592082266984-P9XWTYW07YZ6ZPJ6HIQI/Michelle+Dowd+New+York+Times+Star+Ceiling.jpg Publications - Stick a Starry Night Sky on Your Ceiling If you have a backyard or balcony and a clear moonless night, you might be able to look up and glimpse a few stars. But with the effects of light pollution, if you want to really see the stars — and lots of them — you’ll need to bring them to you. READ MORE https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b2d605f7e3c3a4e16b42f7b/1591685171261-Z123JBSVNM531W1MSO4Z/modern+love+michelle+dowd+art+Brian+Rea Publications - Love in the Time of Low Expectations Brian Rea https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b2d605f7e3c3a4e16b42f7b/1591686743318-SWWNEOPFFPH39RFMBROT/Alpinist+essay+Michelle+Dowd+photo+Jimmy+Lee Publications - The Thing with Feathers: On mountains, climate science and hope I ask him if he thinks it's too late for humans, if the levels of extinction we're witnessing in the animal world will eventually extend to us. I ask him if we've passed the tipping point, or if there's still hope we can curtail destruction. READ MORE https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b2d605f7e3c3a4e16b42f7b/c5c072e5-39d7-4655-b204-6199959cfa3a/Michelle%2BDowd%2BPlant%2BTats.jpeg Publications - Plant Tats I felt lost when I left their mountain, and for years I struggled to find a place to belong. Like the parents I interview here, nature tattoos have helped me reclaim my body as home. READ MORE https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b2d605f7e3c3a4e16b42f7b/0c72f7bb-1bf0-4346-aab3-350f4dbff621/Time%2Bessay%2BMichelle%2BDowd%2Bwoman-water-sunset-illustration.jpeg Publications - The Survival Skills I Learned While Growing Up In a Cult Being tough for a girl was different. We spent long days enduring the abuse of boys, but the way Mother navigated the mountain was like the way she flowed through the gauntlet of Grandpa and her brothers, who enforced our silence. In all terrain, Mother moved like water. READ MORE https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b2d605f7e3c3a4e16b42f7b/c5bfe16b-6a34-420e-b047-78818d3fca74/michelle%2Bdowd%2Bthe%2BLA%2BTimes%2Bartwork%2BDaniella%2BFerretti.png Publications - He didn’t know how to take care of his plants — or my needs I don’t know who Kyle used to be. He was dead when I met him. By the time we met, he was a single stick poking out of fertilized soil, an assuredly dead stump without a hint of life. READ MORE https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b2d605f7e3c3a4e16b42f7b/0ccab7b8-39f7-45dd-a6a4-5730f29923ff/Michelle+Dowd%2BOldster.jpeg Publications - How to Embalm Yourself Before You're Dead I learned to be a mother by caring for my younger siblings and newborn cousins in the cult into which I was born, until I partly grew-up and had four children of my own…I was never a child. READ MORE https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b2d605f7e3c3a4e16b42f7b/a5b55204-6f80-4abd-aa02-35b2eb10cb5b/https___dev.lareviewofbooks.org_wp-content_uploads_2022_04_dfw.jpeg Publications - David Foster Wallace Said I Spoke to Him Like He Was a Dog David Foster Wallace Said I Spoke to Him Like He Was a Dog https://www.michelledowd.org/about daily 0.75 2024-03-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b2d605f7e3c3a4e16b42f7b/1633076453944-MN5VIOXAL6ZIGCFZF457/Michelle+Dowd+Forager.JPG About