American writer
Jonathan Raymond
(born June 26, 1971), usually credited
Jon 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
[
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]
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
.
[1]
Career
[
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]
Fiction
[
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]
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.
[2]
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.
[3]
The collection was also a
Barnes & Noble
"Discover Great New Writer’s" selection. Three stories from that collection ("Old Joy", "Train Choir", and "The Suckling Pig") were adapted into feature films.
"Old Joy", a 2004 short story Raymond wrote that was inspired by the photography of
Justine Kurland
, became adapted into the 2006 film
Old Joy
, directed by
Kelly Reichardt
and starring musician
Will Oldham
.
[4]
[5]
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 2008 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
.
[6]
Wendy and Lucy
was also placed at #87 on
Slant Magazine
's best films of the 2000s,
[7]
and also appeared on many "Top 10 Films of 2008" lists,
[8]
including those of the
Chicago Reader
,
New York Post
,
Newsweek
,
The Austin Chronicle
,
LA Weekly
,
The Philadelphia Inquirer
, the
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
,
Entertainment Weekly
,
The New York Times
,
The Oregonian
,
Slate
,
The Village Voice
, and
The Christian Science Monitor
.
In 2012, Raymond also published a second novel,
Rain Dragon
, which revolves around the character of Damon and his girlfriend Amy, who have had enough of Los Angeles and decide to leave the city to work on a community farm.
"The Suckling Pig", a third story from
Livability
, was adapted into the 2023 film
Earthlings
by Steven Doughton, and premiered at the Goteborg Film Festival in Sweden.
Screenwriting
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]
Raymond has co-written, with the director
Kelly Reichardt
, the screenplays for two of her films based on his short stories,
Old Joy
(2006) and
Wendy and Lucy
(2008), as well as for
First Cow
(2019), based on his novel
The Half Life
. For
Old Joy
, he was nominated, along with the director and producers of the film, for a
John Cassavetes
Award from the 2007
Independent Spirit Awards
.
Raymond also wrote the screenplay for Reichardt's 2010 western
Meek's Cutoff
, which competed for the
Golden Lion
at the
67th Venice International Film Festival
. Raymond was nominated for a Humanitas Prize at the
2011 Sundance Film Festival
for his screenplay, and the film received a "Best Film" nomination from the 2011
Gotham Independent Film Awards
.
Raymond again worked with Reichardt on the screenplay for her film
Night Moves
in 2013. The film was shown in the main competition section of the
70th Venice International Film Festival
in 2013 and at the
2013 Toronto International Film Festival
.
Raymond collaborated on the screenplay for another of Reichardt's films,
First Cow
which premiered at the
Telluride Film Festival
in 2019. The film was also chosen to compete for the
Golden Bear
in the main competition section at the
70th Berlin International Film Festival
in 2020.
Teleplays and television writing
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Raymond also co-wrote all the teleplays (all five episodes) for the 2011 five-part HBO miniseries,
Mildred Pierce
, directed and also co-written by
Todd Haynes
based on
James M. Cain
's novel, and starring
Kate Winslet
as the title character, as well as
Guy Pearce
,
Melissa Leo
,
Evan Rachel Wood
and others. For his writing work on the show, Raymond was nominated for a
Primetime Emmy
for "Outstanding Writing for a Miniseries, Movie or a Dramatic Special" (shared with
Todd Haynes
).
Other work
[
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]
Raymond's professional duties include co-editing
Tin House
, editing
Plazm
, art criticism for
Artforum
and
Modern Painters
, and teaching through
The New School
.
[1]
Raymond's writing has also appeared in
Bookforum
, the
Village Voice
, and other publications.
Raymond produced the 2012 feature film,
Buoy
, directed by Steven Doughton and starring
Matthew Del Negro
and
Tina Holmes
. He has also served as the assistant to Writer/Director
Todd Haynes
on the set of his 2002 film,
Far From Heaven
, starring
Julianne Moore
and
Dennis Quaid
. Raymond used the name "Slats Grobnik" (a character created by Chicago newspaper columnist
Mike Royko
) when he worked as Haynes' assistant on
Far From Heaven
, and
Roger Ebert
noticed this deep in the credits and wrote about it in his "Movie Yearbook 2004."
[9]
Books
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Screenplays
[
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Teleplays
[
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- Mildred Pierce
(2011) (teleplays for all five episodes, Part One to Part Five)
Awards and nominations
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References
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- ^
a
b
Douglas Perry, The Oregonian, Writer Jon Raymond sees his work realized in Oregon films,
http://www.oregonlive.com/movies/index.ssf/2009/01/writer_jon_raymond_sees_his_wo.html
- ^
Amazon.com, The Half-Life by Jon Raymond,
https://www.amazon.com/The-Half-Life-Jon-Raymond-ebook/dp/B002TTICCI
- ^
http://www.oregonlive.com/books/index.ssf/2009/10/oregon_book_awards_honor_new_w.html
The Oregonian
October 27, 2009
- ^
PORT - Portland art + news + reviews
- ^
Starr, Karla (2006-08-23).
"Loggernaut Reading Series, Thursday, Aug. 24: Jonathan Raymond on Old Joy and scrubbing toilets"
. Archived from
the original
on 2007-09-29
. Retrieved
2021-11-07
.
Willamette Week
August 23, 2006
- ^
Lacey, Liam; Dixon, Guy (2008-12-17).
"Toronto Film Critics choose indie over Hollywood"
. Toronto. Archived from
the original
on December 17, 2008.
- ^
"Best of the Aughts: Film"
.
Slant Magazine
. Retrieved
February 10,
2010
.
- ^
"Metacritic: 2008 Film Critic Top Ten Lists"
.
Metacritic
. Archived from
the original
on January 2, 2009
. Retrieved
January 11,
2009
.
- ^
Id.
External links
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