Australian novelists have scooped all six places on the finalist list for Best First Book in this year's Commonwealth Writers Prize (South Pacific & SE Asian Region).

Chair of the judging panel, Auckland publishing guru Graham Beattie, said several New Zealand titles came close to being shortlisted. These might be the books to watch in the Best First Book Award for Fiction in the Montana New Zealand Book Awards later this year.

The top NZ titles included Bloom by Kelly Ana Morey (Penguin Books), Dreams Lost Never Walked by Raumoa Ormsby (Vintage), and The Denniston Rose by Jenny Patrick (Black Swan).

The Australian finalists are:

• Somewhere, Home by Nada Awar Jarrar

• The Alphabet of Light & Dark by Danielle Wood

• The Lambing Flat by Nerida Newton

• Blackwattle Road by Ann Charlton

• A Few Short Notes on Tropical Butterflies by John Murray

• Shantaram by G D Roberts