Gee (Scornful Moon), Knox (Daylight) and Ihimaera (Sky Dancer) have made the shortlist for Best Book in the South Pacific & South East Asian Region of the Commonwealth Writers Prize.

Catherine Chidgey (The Transformation) and Fiona Kidman (Songs from the Violet Café) apparently just missed the cut.

According to the convenor of the judging panel, Graham Beattie, this year's long shortlist of nine novels reflects the very high quality of entries. The other finalists are:

• The Hamilton Case by Michelle de Kretser (Knopf Australia)
• Burke's Soldier by Alan Atwood (Penguin Viking Australia)
• My Life as a Fake by Peter Carey (Faber Australia)
• The Point by Marion Halligan (Allen & Unwin, Australia)
• Homecoming by Adib Khan (Flamingo, Australia)
• Seven Types of Ambiguity by Elliot Perlman (Picador, Australia)

No Kiwi writers made it onto the Best First Book shortlist announced last month, although Kelly Ana Morey, Raumoa Ormsby and Jenny Patrick came close.

The winners of the Best Book category and Best First Book category will be decided when the judges meet in Auckland from 20 February. These two winners will go on the international shortlist for the overall Commonwealth Writers Prize.