The title to Rebel Lowrey Covan's first collection of comic essays I Know Why the Manatee Swims Naked… I've Shopped for Bathing Suits, Too plays on the title of Maya Angelou's classic novel I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, but the sharp, autobiographic pieces resemble the work syndicated South Florida humorist Dave Barry.
The little volume (120 pages) has sold more than 5,000 copies in Florida since it published in 2001, prompting its author to go on a 20-city regional book tour, one that brings her to Barnes & Noble-Carrollwood at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 23, for a reading and signing.
A wife and mother of two teenage daughters, Covan hails from Pensacola, where she's written a humor column, Total Rebellion, for Dockside literary magazine since April 1997.
Many of the chapters in I Know Why the Manatee Swims Naked…originally appeared as columns in Dockside, with names like "Betty Crocker Is a Fictional Character, You Know" and "The Ghosts of Halloweens Past."
She calls her mom Bobo and her maternal grandmother Mamaw, whom she claims is the best hoer (as in gardening) in Mobile County, Ala. But the Southern slant to her humor is a no affectation.
A graduate of the University of South Alabama, Covan moved to Atlanta in 1988 and signed up for a stand-up comedy workshop. She had some success on the comedy club circuit, but being then the mother of two preschoolers, she gave up stand-up comedy for sit-down comedy, as she calls her writing.
"No bright lights or applause," she says, "just the satisfaction of knowing that perhaps something I'm sharing via my computer can brighten an otherwise cloudy day for someone."
Barnes & Noble-Carrollwood expects a nice size crowd for the reading. A bookstore in San Antonio sold out of copies during an appearance this July, and bookstores in Houston and Dallas have experienced similar rushes.
So it turns out Covan is getting her applause yet.
This article appears in Aug 21-27, 2002.