Ending bans on homosexuality was one of the recommendations of a highly critical internal report on the future relevance of the Commonwealth, written by experts from across the member nations.
Judges for the prize, which seeks to reward the best Commonwealth fiction written in English, will select a winner from the shortlist on 12 March.
This is the 21st year of the prize, which aims to reward the best Commonwealth fiction written in English, and to take the work to a wider audience.
In it he celebrated those "who fought for their homes and communities and Commonwealth" and wrote of the importance of understanding "the sacrifices of the Confederate leaders, soldiers and citizens during the period of the Civil War".
Last year the award, which is intended to celebrate the best Commonwealth fiction written in English and to take it to a wider audience, was won by Canadian writer Lawrence Hill for The Book of Negroes.
This is the 21st year of the prize, which aims to reward the best in Commonwealth fiction written in English, and to take the work to a wider audience.
The book which later became known as Leicester's Commonwealth was written by Catholic exiles in Paris and printed anonymously in 1584.
Only one justice, Roderick L. Ireland, dissented, writing that "the commonwealth's resurrection of a moribund statute to deny nonresident same-sex couples access to marriage is not only troubling" but "also is fundamentally unfair".
