Academic Paul Millar has won the $35,000 Copyright Licensing Limited Writer's Award, to work on a biography of writer Bill Pearson. Pearson's sole novel Coal Flat, published in 1963 and now out of print, is considered one of 20th century New Zealand's most influential works of realist fiction. Jenny Jones, a CLL director, said, "We particularly liked the fact that Bill Pearson's story embodied some key movements in New Zealand 20th century life - especially relating to intellectual culture, left-wing politics, homosexuality and the development of Maori academia".