Michael Don
Michael Don
Assistant Professor
Fiction, Humor Writing, Creative Nonfiction, Literary Editing
Michael Don is the author of the story collection Partners and Strangers (Carnegie Mellon University Press, 2019). His short fiction and essays have appeared in journals such as The Southampton Review, World Literature Today, Puerto Del Sol, The Baltimore Review, Washington Square Review, Passages North, Southern Humanities Review, and the Brooklyn Review.
He has previously taught at Tufts University, Penn State University, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and St. Paul's University in Kenya.
Michael co-edits Kikwetu: A Journal of East African Literature and is the fiction editor of Porcupine Literary: A Journal by and for Teachers. He is also one of the co-founders of Fox City Lit—a literary reading series in Fairfax City, Virginia.
Selected Publications
Book
Partners and Strangers, Carnegie Mellon University Press, 2019
Humor
"Organic Milk Is Over: Fund the Arts!," Defenestration Magazine, 2025
"Please Replace the Acknowledgements Page of My Novel with This," Defenestration Magazine, 2024
Short fiction
"Dads in Shorts," Passages North, 2025
"The Visitor," Short Story, Long, 2024
"Homecoming," Pithead Chapel, 2024
"Sneak Peek," The Baltimore Review, 2024
"A Temporary Addiction," Hobart, 2019
"Out and Back," The Cortland Review, 2016
Nonfiction
"What About the Clouds," Timber, 2022
"Sutherlands versus Gluttons," Words & Sports, 2022
"Pangani," the Brooklyn Review, 2022
"Make the NBA Great Again," World Literature Today, 2021
Expanded Publication List
Education
M.F.A., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
B.A., Tufts University
In the Media
"Building Community with Reading Series (& strobe lights)," Moonshine Murmurs: A Podcast from Stillhouse Press, 2025
"Get Lit: Michael Don and Jessica Harris," DC Public Library podcast, 2024
"Being Creative while Parenting," Positive Philter podcast, 2023