International Latino Book Award Given to Nonfiction Author and BJJ Enthusiast

SEATTLE - March 18, 2014 - PRLog -- This latest award for author Elena Stowell joins three other awards on her book, Flowing with the Go, the English version of Indo Com o Fluxo. The book is a story of loss, grief, and a journey to inner strength.

After her fifteen-year-old daughter, Carly, died, Stowell thought she would not survive her grief until she stumbled across Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) and found inner strength and grief-support through her time on the mat. After a soul-searching journey through physical soreness, mental exhaustion and emotional overload, her therapist and coach encouraged Stowell to share her moving and potent story with the world. Flowing with the Go was born. Because of the book’s popularity among the BJJ community both in the U.S. and in Brazil, Stowell and her publisher, BQB Publishing, followed the release of Flowing with the Go with the Portuguese edition—Indo Com o Fluxo.

The International Latino Book Awards are presented by Latino Literacy Now in partnership with Las Comadres Para Las Americas and REFORMA, the National Association to Promote Library and Information Services to Latinos and is an affiliate of the American Library Association.  According to the organization, “. . .books targeting Latinos are a growing segment because of the rapid growth of the market and the current gaps in relevant topics being presented.” The International Latino Book Awards recognizes the quality and variety of books now available in this market.

In addition to helping Stowell heal, Flowing with the Go and Indo Com o Fluxo have become gateways to helping local Seattle youth, as well as those in Brazil, through two charitable projects. In 2007, Stowell and her husband, Chuck, started the nonprofit Carly Stowell Foundation. Stowell also created “Jammin’ BJJ: Give the Gift of Gi,” which collects BJJ clothing and donates them to families in Brazil.

The Living Now Award, Indie Book Awards, and the eLit Awards were presented to Stowell in 2013 for Flowing with the Go.

Indo Com o Fluxo and Flowing with the Go are both available through bookstores throughout the U.S., www.bqbpublishing.com, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble online. The eBooks are available through Kindle, Nook and Kobo. Booksellers can order the book in either language through Ingram, Baker & Taylor, or New Leaf Distributing.

For more information or to schedule Elena Stowell for an interview, book event, or speaking event, please contact Terri Leidich at terri@bqbpublishing.com

About the Author
Elena Stowell, a high school biology and AP biology teacher with a master’s degree in animal science, lives with her family in Kent, Washington. She is a National Board Certified Teacher and is part of a small collaborative group of teachers who facilitate workshops and symposia about food safety and nutrition for a week during the summer each year in Washington, DC, for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Elena’s daughter Carly suddenly died in April of 2007 (a week from her fifteenth birthday), and Elena was devastated as any mother would be. The rest of her life became about surviving the grief. With the support and encouragement of her family and friends, she took a first step off of the couch and back into life. Needing an outlet for the suffocating turmoil of emotions that losing a child causes, Elena found Foster Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. She learned that, like many martial arts, Jiu-Jitsu had a spiritual aspect and would provide the guidance she needed to work through her grief. Her coach, James Foster, sometimes without even knowing it, made statements that she took deeply to heart.

About BQB Publishing
Founded in August of 2010, BQB was created to be “the writer’s publisher,” focusing on quality writing from new authors. An independent hybrid publisher, BQB combines the quality processes of traditional publishing with hands-on author involvement to bring today’s new writers and tomorrow’s best sellers into the hands of booksellers and the reading public. To learn more about BQB, visit www.bqbpublishing.com.