Apologies for the roundup. It’s a very crazy day here. More long-form posts tomorrow.

• J.B. MacKinnnon wins the $25,000 Charles Taylor Prize.
• Aimee Bender: “The short story is an older form than the novel. Like the fairy tale, you could tell the short story in one sitting. The short story doesn’t go away. There’s no chance of it. It’s part of breathing. It’s like asking, will poetry go away? Never!”
• Who is that fat novelist bastard? Alexei Sayle, of course!
• Robert Birnbaum: On Notice.
• A Pasadena-centric rememberance of Octavia Butler.
• Tayari asks: “If you love a writer, let her know!” Love forthcoming for future post on this end.
• Neil Jordan as struggling novelist.
• Toni Morrison on writing operas.
• Nora Roberts has signed a deal with Lifetime Television. The real question here is why such an inevitable development was so late in coming.
• A brief writeup of a recent Edward Jones lecture.
• Nicole Kidman has an ego? Who would have thought?
• A rave review for Daniel Handler’s Adverbs.
• This won’t mean anything if you didn’t grow up watching Superfriends, but Legions of Gotham has scored an interview with the voice of El Dorado.
• Samuel Beckett’s centenary is happening this April. Maud has more.
• Tom Wolfe “will speak at 11 a.m. on the Lawn.” The University of Virginia tried offering Wolfe a regular lawn, but Wolfe insisted on a proper noun.
• And did Sliver really need to be released on DVD?