Submissions for the 2020 East Anglian Book Awards, which celebrate the outstanding literary culture of our region, are now open.

Now in their thirteenth year, the East Anglian Book Awards recognise the books and writers who have been shaped by, and have helped to shape, the culture of the East of England.

Since the awards began, they have highlighted the work of over 150 authors, 200 titles and more almost 100 publishers. Previous winner Sarah Perry went on to win the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction and became a Waterstones Book of the Year.

The award partners are the Norwich-based National Centre for Writing, the University of East Anglia, Jarrold and the Eastern Daily Press. They are supported by the PACCAR Foundation.

Award categories

We welcome entries in the following categories:

• Fiction
• Poetry
• History and Tradition
• Biography and Memoir
• General Non-Fiction
• Children’s Books

We welcome illustrated books in every category.

A winner from each of the six subject categories will be chosen; one of which will receive the overall East Anglian Book of the Year Award, with a top prize of £1,000 courtesy of the PACCAR Foundation.

This year will also see the return of the ‘Exceptional Contribution Award’ in local publishing, as well as the ‘Book by the Cover’ design award, sponsored by East Anglian Writers.

Eligibility

To qualify works must be set largely in East Anglia or be written by an author living in the region, which for the Awards’ purposes is defined as the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, and the area of Fenland District Council. A map detailing the eligibility region is available here.

Books must have been physically published for the first time between 27 July 2019 and 24 July 2020, and must have been commercially available in bookshops. Books available only as eBooks, or solely from online retailers, are not eligible.

How to enter

Due to the Coronavirus pandemic, the 2020 Awards will have a shorter submission window. The deadline for submitting your entry is noon on Friday 31 July 2020.

Books must be submitted digitally in PDF, EPUB or MOBI format. Physical copies cannot be posted.

For full details of the submission process and terms and conditions, click here.