The awards, now called the Costa Book Awards, last year saw women writers win three of the five categories and the £25,000 main prize.

But this year, despite a handful of nominations in other categories, no woman has had her work put forward for either the main novel section or that dedicated to debut novels.

The fiction list features two previous winners: Mark Haddon, nominated for A Spot of Bother, won the overall award in 2003 for The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time; William Boyd, with Restless, won the First Novel award in 1981 for A Good Man in Africa. Boyd's publishers Bloomsbury will be relieved to see Restless - ignored by the Man Booker prize judges - up for at least one award.

Neil Griffiths is also a surprise inclusion. Saving Caravaggio has not been widely reviewed by the national press.

David Mitchell, who was favourite for this year's Booker prize and narrowly missed out to Kiran Desai, is likely to be backed by bookmakers to claim the Costa Award. The author of Cloud Atlas is nominated for his third novel, Black Swan Green.

The Costa Awards, which were instituted in 1971 and are worth £50,000 overall, have five categories: Novel, First Novel, Biography, Poetry, and Children's Book. They recognise "the most enjoyable books of last year" by writers based in the UK and Ireland.

The category winners, who each receive £5,000, will be announced on January 10. The winner of the £25,000 Book of the Year will be announced on February 7. Since 1985, the Book of the Year has been won seven times by a novel, three times by a first novel, five times by a biography, five times by a collection of poetry and once by a children's book. The 2005 Book of the Year was won by Hilary Spurling for Matisse: the Master.

The big omission from the Biography category is Claire Tomalin, whose Thomas Hardy: The Time-torn Man was well received by reviewers.

In poetry, Simon Armitage has been overlooked by outsider John Haynes, with Seamus Heaney once again shortlisted for District and Circle and TLS columnist Hugo Williams shortlisted for his much praised collection, Dear Room.

There were a record number of entries this year, with the judging panel having to trawl through 580 books to come up with the shortlists. Judges include author and broadcaster Kate Adie, authors Mike Gayle, Sophie Kinsella and Adèle Geras, and writer and broadcaster, Susie Dent from Countdown's Dictionary Corner.

John Derkach, Managing Director of Costa said: "The lists reflect the high calibre of writing and wide range of enjoyable books with which the Book Awards have become synonymous since they began back in 1971."

ON THE SHORTLIST

2006 Costa Novel Award shortlist
William Boyd for Restless (Bloomsbury)
Neil Griffiths for Saving Caravaggio (Viking)
Mark Haddon for A Spot of Bother (Jonathan Cape)
David Mitchell for Black Swan Green (Sceptre)

2006 Costa First Novel Award shortlist
Michael Cox for The Meaning of Night (John Murray)
Marilyn Heward Mills for Cloth Girl (Little, Brown)
Stef Penney for The Tenderness of Wolves (Quercus)
James Scudamore for The Amnesia Clinic (Harvill Secker)

2006 Costa Biography Award shortlist
Maggie Fergusson for George Mackay Brown: The Life (John Murray)
John Stubbs for Donne: A Reformed Soul (Viking)
Jo Tatchell for Nabeel's Song (Sceptre)
Brian Thompson for Keeping Mum (Atlantic Books)

2006 Costa Poetry Award shortlist
Vicki Feaver for The Book of Blood (Jonathan Cape)
John Haynes for Letter to Patience (Seren)
Seamus Heaney for District and Circle (Faber and Faber)
Hugo Williams for Dear Room (Faber and Faber)

2006 Costa Children's Book Award shortlist
David Almond for Clay (Hodder Children's Books)
Julia Golding for The Diamond of Drury Lane (Egmont Press)
Meg Rosoff for Just In Case (Puffin)
Linda Newbery for Set in Stone (David Fickling Books)

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