Jonathan Raymond is an American writer living in Portland, Oregon. He is best known for writing the novels The Half-Life and Rain Dragon, and for writing the short stories and novels adapted for the films Old Joy, Wendy and Lucy, and First Cow, all directed by Kelly Reichardt, with whom he co-wrote the screenplays. As a screenwriter, Raymond wrote the original scripts for Meek's Cutoff and Night Moves. He was nominated for a Primetime Emmy for his teleplay writing on the HBO miniseries, Mildred Pierce. Early life and education Raymond grew up in Lake Grove, Oregon, and attended Lake Oswego High School. He graduated from Swarthmore College. He received his MFA from The New School in New York City. Career Fiction He published his first novel, The Half-Life in May 2004, which was released by Bloomsbury. The novel takes place in Oregon and revolves around two parallel storylines: the cook Cookie Figowitz meeting with the refugee Henry Brown in 1820s Oregon, and 160 years later (1980), Tina Plank befriending Trixie, a girl with a troubled past. The novel won a Publishers Weekly "Best Book of 2004" award. In 2008, Raymond published his first collection of short stories, entitled Livability, which won the Oregon Book Award's Ken Kesey Award for Fiction in 2009. The collection was also a Barnes & Noble "Discover Great New Writer’s" selection. Two stories from that collection (Old Joy and Train Choir) were adapted into feature films. Old Joy, a short story Raymond wrote that was inspired by the photography of Justine Kurland, became adapted into the film Old Joy, directed by Kelly Reichardt and starring musician Will Oldham. The film premiered at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival and won awards from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, the Rotterdam International Film Festival, the Sarasota Film Festival and the Independent Spirit Awards (producer Neil Kopp won the Producer's Award), and was on various "Top 10 Films of 2006" lists including those from LA Weekly, Portland Oregonian, The A.V. Club, The Boston Globe, and Entertainment Weekly. Raymond's story Train Choir was adapted into the feature film Wendy and Lucy, also directed by Kelly Reichardt and starring Michelle Williams, and which had its world premiere at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival. The film won both Best Picture and Best Actress (for Williams) at the 12th Toronto Film Critics Association Awards. Wendy and Lucy was also placed at #87 on