Alistair MacLeod, due to appear at the NZ Post Writers and Readers Festival in March 2004, has just won the prestigious Lannan Literary Award. The Canadian writer takes home NZ$192,000 for his efforts.

MacLeod’s novel No Great Mischief was published in 1999. It took ten years to write and has won numerous prizes, including the world's richest literary prize - the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award worth around NZ$268,000.

MacLeod, 68, is also the author of two short story collections The Lost Salt Gift of Blood (1976) and As Birds Bring Forth the Sun (1986) which have since been collected under the title, Island.