Jane Scott Stuart Receives International Recognition Through the NYC Big Book Award®

FORRES, MORAY, SCOTLAND, September 9, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- The NYC Big Book Award recognized Not In This World by Jane Scott Stuart with Elaine Flowers as a winner of African American Fiction category.

The competition is judged by experts from different aspects of the book industry, including publishers, writers, editors, designers, booksellers, librarians and professional copywriters. Winners and distinguished favorites are based on overall excellence.

Not In This World by Jane Scott Stuart
A historical fiction novel inspired by real events, exploring race, gender identity, and courage during the Jim Crow era and World War II.

A landmark in the annals of the human bond.

An untold story of survival in a small town, 1930s Kentucky, between a young black man and a white child, joined at the hip. Their dependence on one another unfurls in this vivid narrative, sweeping through World War II, across the Atlantic and back. This novel, based on real life, is filled with descriptive vigor and dazzling dialogue, keeping readers awake at night, turning pages.

“Jane Stuart writes like a Southern angel, with a voice that sings and beguiles, much like her enigmatic and irresistible character, Paul. Intimate yet sweeping, Paul Carew's story weaves an age-old tale of a black man's domestic servitude with a disarmingly contemporary exploration of sexual gender identity, almost as if 'Transparent' met 'The Help'. The book haunts you and stays with you and breaks your heart. I’m a screenwriter and after reading it I couldn’t stop thinking: this beautiful book has to be made into a movie. My second thought was: I have to write the script.”
— Becky Johnston — Screenwriter, The Prince of Tides, Seven Years in Tibet, The House of Gucci

NYC Big Book Award received book submissions worldwide. Attorneys, Doctors, Entrepreneurs, Film & Television writers, Historians, and Journalists, from well established authors to first time indie authors as well as small and large presses participated.

Entries this year were received from the United States as well as countries such as Australia, Canada, China, Dubai, England, Estonia, France, Germany, Ghana, Greece, New Zealand, Scotland, Singapore, South Korea United, Sweden, Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom. Cities represented among the entries were Auckland, Baltimore, Dallas, Frankfurt, Hollywood, Johannesburg, Manhattan Beach, New Orleans, NYC, Philadelphia, Sydney, and West Palm Beach.

Publishers included Beacon Press, Berrett-Koehler, Casemate, Edinburgh University Press, Forbes Books, Kiplinger Books, NYU Press, Palgrave Macmillan, Penguin Random House, Rizzoli, Routledge, The White House Historical Association, University of California Press, University of Nebraska Press, Weaving Influence Press, and Wiley.

We have an amazing list of authors from around the globe participating this year, said awards sponsor Gabby Olczak. I’m so excited to share these books with a worldwide readership!

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About Jane Scott Stuart
Jane Scott Stuart was born in 1937 in Louisville, Kentucky, and spent her earliest years in her grandmother’s kitchen in Horse Cave, Kentucky — the quiet, segregated world that would later form the heart of Not In This World. An avid reader from the age of three, she grew up with stories woven into every corner of her life.

Jane Scott Stuart
Jane went on to live on four continents — Sweden, Canada, New York, Tahiti, London, Provence, and the Scottish Highlands — absorbing the textures of each place and carrying them into her writing. She was educated at Holton Arms (Washington D.C.), Hollins College (Virginia), and McGill University (Montréal), where she met the man who became her husband: the younger son of a Scottish Earl, now her literary critic and beloved companion of over seventy years.

Not In This World is her debut novel. It draws directly on her own life and memory to tell a story of identity, love, and the extraordinary bonds that survive the pressures of history.

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About Elaine Flowers
Elaine Flowers has been publishing fiction since 2004. Her debut novel became a Dallas Morning News bestseller, and she has since authored ten additional books across multiple genres. A graduate of Full Sail University with a BFA in Creative Writing for Entertainment, she brings both craft and discipline to everything she writes.

As a full-time writer and editor, Elaine works closely with independent authors to help them shape and realise their stories. Her collaboration with Jane Scott Stuart on Not In This World brought Paul’s perspective to the page with the emotional precision the story demands. She lives in Dallas, Texas, with her husband.

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About the Award
NYC Big Book Award, https://www.nycbigbookaward.com/, is announced every fall. NYC Big Book Award is open to all authors, publishers, and illustrators, and includes submissions from the big five publishers. Join us for the Awards Dinner on April 10th, https://www.nycbigbookaward.com/awardsdinner, held at the BookCAMP event, April 9-10, 2027, https://www.ipabookcamp.com, where recipients from both programs will walk on stage to receive their awards.

Gabby Olczak
NYC Big Book Award
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2026 NYC Big Book Award Winner in African American Fiction