Harriet Allan began working for Penguin Random House (then Century Hutchison) in 1989. She has developed and nurtured numerous New Zealand writers, including Dame Fiona Kidman, Owen Marshall and Fiona Farrell, and supported Māori writing, including working with Patricia Grace and Tina Makereti. She has published several of Witi Ihimaera’s works. She championed the publication of ‘Black Marks on the White Page’, an Oceanic anthology edited by Witi Ihimaera and Tina Makereti, and followed it with several other significant anthologies of Māori writing. Ms Allan supports new writers through mentoring, giving talks and involvement in the Sunday Star-Times short story competition and the Michael King Writers Centre.