It’s official! The Sundance Film Festival announced its 2008 lineup. And the film adaptation of Mysteries of Pittsburgh made the list. The festival is Jan. 17-27.

A poll of writers, celebrities and book critics ranked Michael Chabon’s Yiddish Policemen’s Union as the No. 3 fiction novel in 2007.

“Best-seller lists really only show people what’s selling, not what people are reading. Recommendations are personal because it means someone has actually read that book. And who better to ask than award-winning poets, novelists, historians and critics?” John Freeman, president of the National Book Critics Circle, told the AP.

The poll was based on nearly 500 votes from the likes of John Updike and Anne Tyler.

A new hardcover edition of The Escapists will feature an introduction by Michael Chabon that will introduce real-life writer Brian K. Vaughan to Sam Clay, according to the comic’s writer and artist.

The hardcover, set to hit stores Dec. 12, collects the six-part series about Maxwell Roth and Case Weaver, two Cleveland comic fanatics who try to revive the dormant Escapist line of comics. In his e-mail newsletter Wednesday, Steve Rolston, who drew the “reality” sequences in the series, says an intro Chabon wrote for the collection is “almost like an epilogue to Chabon’s novel, as the fictional Sam Clay meets a young boy at a comic convention.”

Vaughan, who wrote the series, talked about the introduction with Los Angeles CityBeat in September. It features “a character from Kavalier & Clay, who’s at a convention for old-timer comics creators in the 1980s, and inspires a young Brian Vaughan to become a comic book writer.”

“It’s the most surreal experience to read my favorite novelist writing me into the canon of his world,” Vaughan said. “It’s awesome.”

The collection also features a cover by Alex Ross. It’s priced at $19.95.

If you’re living in Washington state, you might consider checking out the Village Theatre’s newest production on Monday. Among the short stories being performed is Ayelet Waldman’s controversial essay “Truly, Madly, Guiltily.”

A recap: In 2005, Waldman published the essay in the New York Times and says she loves her husband, Michael Chabon, more than her children. Readers reacte — negatively. Lots of name calling on the blogs and dirty letters-to-the-editor culminated in an appearance on “Oprah” where Waldman tried to explain herself.

Since then, things have been quiet, but the essay remains in the minds of her followers as, at the very least, a definitive landmark in her writing career. Now, the Village Theatre will perform an adaptation of the essay as part of Love is Love, which runs Nov. 29-Dec. 16.

“It’s like a one woman show with a bunch of monologues, one based on my essay,” Waldman says.

Tickets are $20-25.

The Jewish Daily Forward has named Michael Chabon one of the 50 Most Influential Jews.

The editors cite Chabon’s work on The Yiddish Policemen’s Union and Gentlemen of the Road as reasons why they picked him.

Sharing space on the list is Attorney General Michael Mukasey, director Judd Apatow, and George Soros.