Canberra indigenous writer Jeanine Leane's story-cycle based on her childhood near Gundagai has been shortlisted for the 2012 Commonwealth Book Prize.
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Leane, a post-doctoral fellow in Australian literature at the ANU, based the 11 stories in Purple Threads on her experiences of growing up with strong Aboriginal women on a small sheep farm in the 1960s and '70s.
She was previously awarded the Arts Queensland David Unaipon Award for Unpublished Indigenous Writer in 2010 for her manuscript of Purple Threads.
The stories are described as ''funny, endearing and thought-provoking'', offering ''a snapshot of a unique Australian upbringing'' and giving an insight into being Aboriginal in a white community.
Three other Australians are also among the 19 Commonwealth authors shortlisted for the prize, awarded by the London-based Commonwealth Foundation: Christopher Currie, for The Ottoman Hotel, Mette Jakobsen, The Vanishing Act, and Cory Taylor, Me and Mr Booker.
One Australian has been shortlisted for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize: Nic Low for Rush.
Regional winners will be announced on May 22 and the overall winner on June 8.
