Crafting Stories: Mark Roberts and Jon Raymond

Jon Raymond is the author of the novels God and Sex, The Half-Life, Rain Dragon, and Freebird, and the story collection Livability, winner of the Oregon Book Award. He has collaborated on six films with the director Kelly Reichardt, including Old Joy, Wendy and Lucy, Meek’s Cutoff, Night Moves, First Cow, and the forthcoming Showing Up, numerous of which have been based on his fiction. He also received an Emmy Award nomination for his screenwriting on the HBO miniseries Mildred Pierce directed by Todd Haynes and starring Kate Winslet. He was the editor of Plazm Magazine, associate and contributing editor at Tin House magazine, and a member of the Board of Directors at Literary Arts. His writing has appeared in Zoetrope, Playboy, Tin House, The Village Voice, Artforum, Bookforum, and other places. He lives in Portland, Oregon.

Mark Roberts is an actor, comedian, screenwriter, playwright and producer. As a comedian, Mark appeared seven times on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. His performance at the Montreal Comedy Festival, hailed by Variety as “a perfect ten,” led to a series regular role on The Naked Truth, along with television appearances on Seinfeld, Friends, The Larry Sanders Show, and others. Mark is the writer of several plays, including Couples Counseling Killed Katie and The New York Times Critic’s Picks Rantoul and Die, and New Country. Mark was a head writer and producer of Two and a Half Men for seven years before going on to create and executive produce Mike & Molly, both CBS sitcoms. He is currently the creative force behind Bad Mule, Inc., a multimedia playground for all ages and home to The Lonely Banjo and Bad Mule Rag