The annual MacArthur Foundation "Genius" Fellows have been announced; they each will receive a big pot of money (half a million, paid quarterly over five years) just for being special and creative.

Among them this time is George Saunders, who has a loose connection to our SFF world -- he writes stories that are generally published as mainstream, but often have surreal or science-fictional elements. (In fact, his short story "CommComm" is currently a finalist for the World Fantasy Awards -- I mention this mostly because I'm one of the judges this year.)

Previous MacArthur Fellows include the late Octavia E. Butler and Jonathan Lethem.