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But they all feature in Odes, the latest collection from Sharon Olds.

In recent years, the American poet has found critical acclaim.

She won the Pulitzer Prize and the TS Eliot Prize in 2013 for Stag's Leap, written when her husband left her after almost three decades of marriage.

Last year, Olds was awarded the Academy of American Poets' Wallace Stevens Award, which came with a $US100,000 cheque and acknowledgement she was an "American master, and a national treasure".

'These were my passionate subjects'

Beren and Luthien is about the fate of two characters — a mortal man and an immortal elf — taken from Tolkien's fictional world, Middle Earth.

The story centres on a series of daunting quests and forbidden love, as the lovers together try to steal from the greatest of all evil beings, Melkor.

It was edited by his son Christopher Tolkien, who is now 92, and contains versions of a tale that became part of The Silmarillion.

The winner receives $50,000 — though sadly two of this year's shortlisted writers died last year.

RN's Books and Arts explains the broad range of work by the prize's six shortlisted authors.

An Isolated Incident by Emily Maguire

This novel puts an act of sexual violence at its centre. A young woman — Bella — is raped and murdered.

But An Isolated Incident is not another sensationalist account of violence against women.

After she was asked on Twitter to give a hint as to what the book would be called, Rowling said if someone correctly guessed she would confirm it.

She then hinted the title was two words made up of _ _ _ H _ _ / _ H _ _ _.

After many suggestions including Eighty Shoes, Mashed Chips, Mayhem Sheep and Mighty Thumb, someone correctly guessed Lethal White.

"Well, that was fun," Rowling tweeted, before promising the fan a signed copy of the book, "when I finally finish it".