Maggie Downs is an award-winning journalist and columnist. Her work has appeared in The Cincinnati Enquirer, The Desert Sun (Palm Springs) and AFAR Magazine, and her literary writing has been featured on Punchnel's, The Rumpus and Annotation Nation. She is studying creative nonfiction in UCR Palm Desert's low-residency MFA in creative writing and writing for the performing arts. She lives in Palm Springs with her husband, a ninja cat and a blind and deaf dog.