WELLINGTON, March 15 (Xinhua) -- A New Zealand writer who has spent much of his life working as a mail sorter won New Zealand's largest literary prize on Saturday.

    David Beach was presented with a cheque for 65,000 NZ dollars (52,975 U.S. dollars) as winner of the biennial Prize in Modern Letters for his book of poems Abandoned Novel.

    New Zealand's largest literary award, the Prize in Modern Letters, is sponsored by United States businessman and arts philanthropist Glenn Schaeffer and administered by Victoria University's International Institute of Modern Letters (IIML).

    Eligible writers must have published no more than two books.

    Beach was born in 1959 and grew up mainly in Wellington.

    In 1986, he moved to Sydney where he worked as a mail sorter for Australia Post. He began writing poems while in Australia and these have been published in various magazines and newspapers.

    Beach returned to Wellington in 2002 and worked as a mail sorter for New Zealand Post.

    Abandoned Novel is his first book of poems.