Don Roos’s film adaptation of Love and Other Impossible Pursuits is set to premier at the Toronto International Film Festival.

The film, based on Ayelet Waldman’s novel and staring Natalie Portman, will be one of 335 films from 64 countries that will screen at the festival, which runs from Sept. 10 through 19. Seventy-one other films will also have their world premier at the festival.

Here’s how the film is described in TIFF’s press release, which was issued last week:

“Emilia Woolf (Natalie Portman) is a Harvard law school graduate and a newlywed, having just married Jack, her high-powered New York lawyer boss (Scott Cohen). Her life takes an unexpected turn when the couple loses their newborn daughter. Emilia struggles through her grief to connect with her precocious new stepson William (Charlie Tahan), overcome a rift in her relationship with her father caused by his infidelity, and cope with the constant interferences of Jack’s angry, jealous ex-wife (Lisa Kudrow). An adaptation of an Ayelet Waldman novel, this tearful and terrific tale by writer-director Don Roos proves that even with a pursuit like love, nothing is impossible.”

NPR reports that Michael Chabon is one of several authors who are pushing for Google Inc. to guarantee more privacy to readers.

He and authors Jonathan Lethem, Cory Doctorow, and others are concerned that Google will monitor the reading history of visitors to the monumental digital library it is building. “They know which books you search for,” says Cindy Cohn, legal director for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which is organizing the campaign. “They know which books you browse through; they know how long you spend on each page.”

Google says it is just as concerned about reader privacy. “The regular Google privacy policy says that we do not disclose your personal information except in some narrow circumstances like emergencies and search warrants,” says Daphne Keller, a company attorney.

Head to NPR to read and hear more.

The Ayelet Waldman publicity tour for her new book got off to its first start today with an interview in USA Today.

Waldman’s newest book, Bad Mother: A Chronicle of Maternal Crimes, Minor Calamities, and Occasional Moments of Grace, goes on sale Tuesday. She tells USA Today that she’s prepared for controversy akin to what came after she confessed in 2005 that she loved her husband more than her children.

“I am a little bit more protected now because 1) I have a feeling that it might be coming, and 2) I have fail-safes built in,” she told the paper. “I love reader mail, and I do read it, but I won’t read hate mail.”

Waldman also gave an interview to her hometown paper, the Berkeley Daily Planet. She tells the paper her new book is “half memoir and rant…and half social commentary on what contemporary American women find themselves in, the parlor game of how a mother feels–eternal ambivalence, anxiety.”

Waldman will be giving readings throughout the next two months across the country, beginning next week in Washington, D.C. on Monday and New York on Tuesday. For more information, head to her Web site.

Following the news that he’d been hired to revise the script for Disney’s John Carter of Mars, Michael Chabon took to Northwestern University on Monday to deliver a lecture on — what else — Edgar Allen Poe.

The Daily Northwestern reports that Chabon recited Poe’s poem “Ulalume,” “his rendition was more performance than presentation.” A blog maintained by three MFA graduates in Montana says Chabon then went on to discuss how to instill horror into writing. He also could relate to Poe, the Northwestern reports.

“Bookish, homely, clumsy, bright, friendless, arrogant and self-pitying – I was all those things at the same time,” Chabon said. “The tag of ‘nerd’ did not come into general use in the school corridors of my hometown until the following year and words like ‘geek’ or ‘fanboy’ or even, in its full derogatory richness, ‘loser’ remained years away from finding their way onto the ‘kick me’ sign I wore taped to my back.”

The Chicago Tribune, in an article previewing the lecture, asked Chabon why he chose to lecture on Poe.

“Well, it was either Poe or Robert Ludlum,” Chabon said. “In the end, I just pulled the trigger and picked Poe. [Laughs] I’m totally kidding. The writers I tend to like are the writers who meet you at any point you return to them. So, you know, when you read Poe when you’re a kid, you notice the obvious, surface appeal of Poe — a lot of the gothic horror and the extreme states of consciousness and the macabre imagery. But when I go to Poe now, at the age of almost 46, I’m a lot less interested in that sort of stuff now. When I go to Poe now, there’s the incredible sense of loss. The ache of loss that permeates Poe.”

The Tribune diverged from Poe to ask Chabon about other topics. The author says he thinks a Kavalier & Clay movie will “eventually” get made, despite past road bumps. Asked if he was worried if the Mysteries of Pittsburgh movie might give a new life to questions about his sexuality, Chabon said he “didn’t care.” The reporter then asked if he was “uncomfortable” being identified as a bisexual author.

“Yeah, well, uncomfortable because I’m not bisexual,” Chabon said. “Uncomfortable isn’t even the right word. It would be like if I was identified as a Mennonite novelist. To quote Seinfeld — not that there’s anything wrong with that. It’s just not the case. But ultimately, it doesn’t matter one way or the other.”

Michael Chabon has won the 2009 Scripter Literary Achievement Award.

The prize, established in 2007, honors writers “who have made a significant and lasting impact on the art of cinematic adaptation,” according to a press release released Tuesday. At the ceremony Jan. 30, the Friends of USC Libraries will also award the prize for best film adaptation of a book or novella, which has been awarded since 1988.

“I am delighted to have been singled out for this honor,” Chabon said in a statement. “I consider myself fortunate to be able to share in the great tradition that the Scripter Award both recognizes and exemplifies.”

Steven Zaillian, screenwriter of Gangs of New York and Schindler’s List, won the first achievement award last year. Chabon previously won the 2001 Scripter Award for the screen adaptation of Wonder Boys.