On today’s episode we speak with author Zachary Downing, a coming-of-age novelist who enjoys writing funny and relatable characters trudging through the everyday, frantic and transformative trials of life.

His first novel, Flounder, was published in 2022, and concerns a college Freshman who stops going to class, but keeps going to parties. Downing wrote it to be the crazy college version of “The Little Engine That Could.”

In 2023, Downing has published his second novel, Manhattan to Montauk, which involves a whirlwind summer romance between a 22-year-old man and a 17-year-old woman. Set in 1995, in New York City and the Long Island vacation community of Montauk, this book examines early-adulthood love through changing seasons, setting and circumstance.

You can purchase Manhattan to Montauk and Flounder, through his website: zdowning.com. You can also follow Zach on Instagram at: Zachary_Downing_writes.