Mark Laframboise grew up in Chicago. His first job in bookselling was at Copperfield & Co. in Macomb, IL, where he pursued an MA in American literature after a three-year stint in the army. He then joined Stone Lion Bookstore in Fort Collins, CO, where he worked for five years as adult book buyer and store manager.  Laframboise currently works at Politics and Prose Bookstore in Washington, DC, where he has been for over twenty years, primarily as head book buyer.