The eighth EDP-Jarrold East Anglian Book Awards have been launched, once again offering a £1,000 top prize for the overall winner and the title 'East Anglian Book of the Year'.

The search has begun for the pick of the region's writing talent with the launch of the 2015 EDP-Jarrold East Anglian Book Awards.

The awards - now in their eighth year - are staged in association with the Writers' Centre Norwich and UEA.

The overall East Anglian Book of the Year will pick up a £1,000 prize, thanks to the kind support of the PACCAR Foundation.

Since the awards began in 2008 they have showcased the work of well over 100 authors, 129 titles, and more than 80 publishers.

That winner will follow in the footsteps of Norwich novelist Sarah Perry whose novel After Me Comes the Flood was named East Anglian Book of the Year 2014.

The overall winner will be chosen from the winner of the following categories: Poetry; Biography and Memoir; History and Tradition; General Non Fiction; Children's Books.

East Anglian Writers will once again sponsor a prize for the Best Cover drawn from all shortlisted titles.

This year the EABA organising team will be choosing its own special prizewinner, the 'Exceptional Contribution Award', to honour a person or organisation who has made a particular contribution to local publishing.

Chris Rushby, Book Buyer/Manager of Jarrold's books department, said: 'We're delighted to support these awards, which highlight the wealth of literary talent in East Anglia, both in the breadth and quality of the publishing that's done here and also the huge number of brilliant authors who live and work in the region.'

It's a view that's backed by Chris Gribble, chief executive of Writers' Centre Norwich, who said: 'Writers' Centre Norwich is delighted to be a partner once more in the East Anglian Book Awards 2015.

As an exciting part of the literary and publishing ecology of our city and region, the East Anglian Book Awards may take place in Norwich, England's UNESCO World City of Literature, but show the strength of all East Anglia in the worlds of reading, writing and publishing.

'Thanks to the kind support of the PACCAR Foundation, we are able to carry on the award of £1,000 for the overall East Anglian Book of the Year Award. We are also pleased to confirm that for the second year, East Anglian Writers are supporting an award for the best cover design across the category winning titles. The East Anglian Book Awards are going from strength to strength!'

The Faculty of Arts and Humanities at the University of East Anglia is once again pleased to support the 2015 East Anglian Book Awards too.

Faculty Dean, Professor Yvonne Tasker said: 'These awards are important to the region and celebrate the wealth of talent among the local community, from emerging writers to international literary stars. Creative Writing is in UEA's DNA. UEA Chancellor, Rose Tremain, was once a student and tutor, while recent MA graduate Emma Healey was this year's Costa Debut novel winner. Prizes matter.

This year's Awards will be an interesting competition to judge and UEA is pleased to be involved once again.'

And awards co-founder the EDP is, of course, proud to sponsor the awards.

Nigel Pickover, editor-in-chief of the EDP and Evening News, said: 'Good writing has been at the heart of everything we do since the EDP began in 1870, and so we are delighted to support and promote these awards. They have become an eagerly-awaited part of the local creative scene and we look forward to celebrating more writers, photographers and publishers.'

The presentation evening will take place in the autumn, once again at a prestigious venue in Norwich, with a chance to enjoy a special guest speaker. Previous guest speakers have included the likes of best-selling writers Sophie Hannah, Eimear McBride, Mark Cocker and Rose Tremain.

More details of the awards evening will be announced later in the year.

How to enter this year's EDP-Jarrold East Anglian Book Awards, in association with Writers' Centre Norwich and UEA

We welcome entries in the following categories: Fiction; Poetry; History and Tradition; Biography and Memoir; General Non-Fiction; and Children's Books.

To qualify works have to 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 and Suffolk, and the area of Fenland District Council.

Books must have been physically published for the first time between August 1, 2014 and July 24, 2015 and been commercially available.

To enter, simply submit TWO physical copies of your nominated book, plus a covering letter which includes details of which category you would like it to be entered for.

Send your entries to Trevor Heaton, East Englian Book Awards, Prospect House, Rouen Road, Norwich NR1 1RE. Any entry queries should be addressed to him at trevor.heaton@archant.co.uk with 'EABA' in the subject line.

The closing date for entries is noon on JULY 24 2015. To help the judging process, please don't leave your entry to the last minute. We cannot return entries.

All titles will be considered before the judges draw up their shortlist for each category. Organisers reserve the right to withdraw or amend any category depending on number of entries received. Due to the volume of entries, we regret that we are not able to give feedback to unsuccessful entrants.

This shortlist will be published in the Eastern Daily Press, Evening News, and on-line, by early October. Shortlisted authors will be informed.