Nifty links

One person who’s really benefiting from the multiple Oscars of MILLION DOLLAR BABY is Nat Sobel — the agent for the late F.X. Toole, who wrote the story the movie was based on. And it looks like Toole had something else up his sleeve — an 850 page novel…

George Wiedenfeld, the UK’s “grand old man of publishing,” speaks to the Telegraph’s Elizabeth Grice about his colorful life, his many wives, and oh yeah — the publishing industry.

In a quest to link to every review possible that demonstrates (yet again) how in the minority I am about this, here’s Anthony Rainone’s detailed take on THE FORGOTTEN MAN for January Magazine.

The Sydney Morning Herald is just the latest paper to talk to 20 year old wunderkind Helen Oyeyemi about her instant success with THE ICARUS GIRL. She’s still struggling to take it all in, especially when blind dates comment that they expected some kind of “kooky, hip girl.”

By contrast, The Age looks at another accomplished Nigerian writer, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, whose debut PURPLE HIBISCUS is so beautifully written I’d be jealous, except I know I can’t write like that.

Robert Birnbaum catches up with Robert McCrum, a man of so many hats — literary editor of the Observer, novelist, biographer of P.G. Wodehouse — I wonder how he keeps them all straight.

The Charles Taylor prize for Literary Non-Fiction was given to freelance journalist Charles Montgomery, and Rebecca “Girl Friday” Caldwell has more details.

StorySouth announced its Top Ten online stories list yesterday. I’ve read through some and they are quite good, though I was slightly sad that no crime fiction made the shortlist. Still, vote for your favorites.

Tom Dolin offers up the top ten most insightful books on George Eliot over at the Guardian.