ONCE IN A
BLUE MOON
Vicki Covington
For immediate release
Once in a Blue Moon
A diverse group of working-class neighbors come together during the 2008 presidential election in Vicki
Covington’s new novel, Once in a Blue Moon.
April 4, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-89587-679-9
FIC 044000
Hardcover
$26.95
6” x 9”
208 pages
Also available as an ebook
Winston-Salem, NC — It is hard to believe that it was only eight years ago that
a charismatic young African American emerged on the political scene and inspired
many previously disaffected voters to have new hope. It’s against the background of
Barack Obama’s 2008 election campaign that a motley group of struggling individuals
are thrown together in Once in a Blue Moon. Tenants of a benevolent landlord in a
Birmingham, AL, neighborhood that has seen better days, these neighbors form their
own brand of community. We follow them as they join together to lift each other up and
bring hope for a better future back into their lives.
Abraham Kasir has properties scattered across Birmingham, but the ones on
Cullom Street hold a special place in his heart. So does his newest tenant, Landon
Cooper, a transplant from one of the city’s ritzier suburbs. Landon’s a psychologist
managing her own mental illness in the face of divorce and downsizing. Her upstairs
neighbor, Abi, is a country girl trying to shake her rural roots even as her father’s
illness pulls her back home. Across the street, Jet is a former prostitute reeling from an
uncovered truth about her birth mother. Jet has a crush on her neighbor Sam, a weed
dealer paying his way through college and wrestling with his dreams for the future.
Mr. Kasir acts not just as a landlord but as a father figure to each of them—and most
of all to his grandson, Jason. Fresh out of high school, Jason is trying to follow in his
grandfather’s footsteps while his own father struggles with drug addiction.
In league with other great Southern novelists including Anne Tyler and Fannie
Flagg, Covington writes with tenderness and humor while asking important questions
about family, faith, race, class, and—ultimately—hope.
VICKI COVINGTON was born and grew up in Birmingham, AL. Her previous
work includes the novels Gathering Home, Bird of Paradise, Night Ride Home, and The
Last Hotel for Women and the memoir Cleaving: The Story of a Marriage with Dennis
Covington. She wrote a column for the Oxford American and has also written for The
New Yorker. The recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and
the Alabama State Council for the Arts, she now resides in Lubbock, TX.
Media contact: Carolyn Sakowski
[email protected]
1-800-222-9796
John F. Blair, Publisher
1406 Plaza Drive
Winston-Salem, N.C. 27103
www.blairpub.com
JOHN F. BLAIR, PUBLISHER, has been publishing books on the southeastern
United States since 1954 and distributes books for nearly 25 independent presses,
including Lookout Books, Hub City Press, and NewSouth Books. Based in WinstonSalem, North Carolina, this independent, family-owned company specializes in history,
travel, folklore, biography, and fiction. Learn more at www.blairpub.com.
ONCE IN A
BLUE MOON
Vicki Covington
Meet Vicki Covington
“When I was growing up, I didn’t know I was a writer. I
knew there was something wrong with me. I just didn’t
know what it was.”
—Vicki Covington
April 4, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-89587-679-9
FIC 044000
Hardcover
$26.95
6” x 9”
208 pages
Also available as an ebook
WHEN VICKI COVINGTON WAS A CHILD, her mother was like a “white Rosa
Parks.” She would seat her family in the back of the bus on their way downtown. When
the driver asked that all whites move to the front of the bus, she would turn to Vicki
and whisper, “just look out the window, sweetie.” That was in the late 1950s. Years later
Vicki can still point to that foundation as what caused her to care about diversity and
advocacy.
Vicki Covington received a B.A. in sociology followed by a Masters in Social Work
at the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa. She worked as an outpatient therapist
for twelve years in Birmingham. She had been
faithfully keeping a journal since childhood but it
Fun Fact: Vicki’s family
worked in Central
was during this time her husband, writer Dennis
America once teaching
Covington, helped her discover that there was a
villagers to drill
writer inside her waiting to come out. Her stories
shallow wells for clean
were published in Boston Globe Magazine, The
water.
New Yorker, and the Southern Humanities Review
among others. She was also the “Meditations for
Bad Girls” columnist at The Oxford American for a number of years.
In 1988, Covington’s career really took off when she received a National Endowment
for the Arts fellowship and quit her day job to write full time. After publishing four
novels with Simon & Schuster and one work of nonfiction with her husband in nine
years, a perfect storm of personal and family crises hit. Covington did not write another
word for fifteen years. But a few years ago, her need to write returned and the result is
Once in a Blue Moon.
The Covingtons now live near their grandchildren in Lubbock, TX, with their
dachshund named Pablo. Once in a Blue Moon is her love letter to the community she
used to call home in Birmingham.
OTHER WORKS BY VICKI COVINGTON:
Media contact: Carolyn Sakowski
[email protected]
1-800-222-9796
John F. Blair, Publisher
1406 Plaza Drive
Winston-Salem, N.C. 27103
www.blairpub.com
Bird of Paradise (Simon & Schuster. 1990.)
Night Ride Home (Simon & Schuster. 1992.)
The Last Hotel for Women (Simon & Schuster. 1996.)
Gathering Home (Simon & Schuster. 1998.)
Cleaving: The Story of a Marriage (written with Dennis Covington) (North Point Press. 1999.)
Women in a Man’s World, Crying (University of Alabama Press. 2002.)
ONCE IN A
BLUE MOON
Vicki Covington
Advance Praise for
Once in a Blue Moon
“It’s wonderful to have a new Vicki Covington novel to recommend. Once in a Blue
Moon tells the story of a little community of lost souls who find each other in a season
when hope and change seem like real possibilities. This is a lovely book, full of delight
and real feeling. I can’t think of another quite like it.”
—Mark Childress, author of Crazy in Alabama and Georgia Bottoms
“Vicki Covington is one of the most gifted and talented writers of the New South. In her
latest novel, Once in a Blue Moon, she has created a most interesting group of diverse
and unconventional characters, thrown together by chance, who soon come to discover
the true meaning of friendship, family, and community.”
—Fannie Flagg, author of The Whole Town’s Talking
April 4, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-89587-679-9
FIC 044000
Hardcover
$26.95
6” x 9”
208 pages
Also available as an ebook
“I wondered if anyone could ever capture the excitement so many of us felt at Obama’s
first election. Vicki Covington, an expert at conveying emotion, has. She also describes
the intricate and specific world of Southside Birmingham, which conveniently has
counterparts in every Southern city—small pockets of progressive and diverse life where
people go along and get along. I’ll keep this tender book on my shelf.”
—Rheta Grimsley Johnson, author of The Dogs Buried Over the Bridge
Praise for Earlier Books
“Subtle and affirming, Covington’s first novel is filled with memorable characters who
make ordinary goodness seem both accessible and desirable.”
—Publishers Weekly review of Gathering Home
“The novel’s greatest strength is Covington’s ability to make her ‘good’ people both
interesting and complex. Highly recommended.”
—Library Journal review of Gathering Home
“Narrator Honey’s voice is clear and true, her insights unsentimentally honest, and her
spiritual faith convincing. She is a captivating heroine.”
—Publishers Weekly review of Bird of Paradise
Media contact: Carolyn Sakowski
[email protected]
1-800-222-9796
John F. Blair, Publisher
1406 Plaza Drive
Winston-Salem, N.C. 27103
www.blairpub.com
“Covington’s deeply etched characters inspire readers’ affection. The deftly paced, lyrical
narrative is made all the more affecting by the looming shadow of WWII.”
—Publishers Weekly review of Night Ride Home
“Her unusual ability to depict Southerners with discerning candor as well as sympathetic
understanding has distinguished Covington’s three previous, praised novels.”
—Publishers Weekly review of Last Hotel for Women
ONCE IN A
BLUE MOON
Vicki Covington
Media Angles
Novel Looks at President Obama’s 2008 Campaign and its Impact
on Urban Communities
The characters in Vicki Covington’s new novel, Once in a Blue Moon, are looking and
hoping for a better future. They unite to place this hope in Barack Obama during his
first presidential campaign. The novel is a genuine look at the sense of community
that was building in many low socioeconomic neighborhoods throughout the country
in 2008. The political climate serves as a common thread throughout the storylines of
the core group of six neighbors as election day approaches when they’ll find out if their
hopes have paid off. Covington can discuss whether how a diverse group of neighbors
might react in today’s political climate.
April 4, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-89587-679-9
FIC 044000
Hardcover
$26.95
6” x 9”
208 pages
Author Vicki Covington Writes from Her Own Experiences in
Birmingham’s Southside Neighborhood
The right author to write a book set in Birmingham’s Southside neighborhood is a
writer who has lived there herself. Vicki Covington called the Southside home during
the 2008 election, which also serves as a backdrop for Once in a Blue Moon. Covington
said “I wanted to document what I learned as a renter on Cullom Street, when I was
forced to leave the suburbs and live among the working poor.” Covington has experienced first-hand the sense of community neighbors feel among the diverse households
in the Southside. Covington can talk about what it is like to live as a member of the
working poor.
Also available as an ebook
Once in a Blue Moon is a Diverse Book to Read in 2017
Author Vicki Covington grew up in Birmingham during the Civil Rights Movement.
She has witnessed the city work on healing along racial lines. Although her novel Once
in a Blue Moon is not about race, it tells the story of how far the city and the country as
a whole had come by 2008 when President Obama was elected. Featuring a cast of characters from different racial and ethnic backgrounds, as well as LGBTQ characters, Once
in a Blue Moon is a diverse book about the way places and people adapt and find hope
for a more inclusive future. Covington can talk about the differences she sees today in
Birmingham from what she saw while growing up there in the 1950s and 60s.
Vicki Covington’s Return to Fiction
Media contact: Carolyn Sakowski
[email protected]
1-800-222-9796
John F. Blair, Publisher
1406 Plaza Drive
Winston-Salem, N.C. 27103
www.blairpub.com
Once Vicki Covington discovered she was a writer, she thought she would never stop
writing. With a steady stream of short stories, novels, and nonfiction books published
from the early 1980s to 2000s, Covington’s career was flourishing. But when a storm of
personal and family crises hit, Covington quit writing for almost fifteen years. John F.
Blair, Publisher is pleased to bring you Covington’s return to fiction with Once in a Blue
Moon, the story of a group of diverse neighbors in Birmingham who develop a sense of
community during the 2008 presidential election. Covington can talk about what it is
like to return to writing after a fifteen-year hiatus.
ONCE IN A
BLUE MOON
Vicki Covington
Suggested Interview
Questions for Vicki
Covington
1. You have lived in Birmingham most of your life. How has the city inspired your
writing?
2. What made you choose to set the book during President Obama’s 2008 election
campaign?
3. How is this book similar or different from your past work?
April 4, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-89587-679-9
FIC 044000
Hardcover
$26.95
6” x 9”
208 pages
Also available as an ebook
Media contact: Carolyn Sakowski
[email protected]
1-800-222-9796
John F. Blair, Publisher
1406 Plaza Drive
Winston-Salem, N.C. 27103
www.blairpub.com
4. When Abi learns that Landon is a psychologist, she says “I guess all your friends
want you to fix them without having to pay you.” Have you ever asked for free professional advice from a friend?
5. Once in a Blue Moon is also made up of a racially and ethnically diverse group of
characters. How did these characters come together in your writing process?
6. This book includes some LGBTQ characters. How do you feel about the level of
LGBTQ representation in Southern literature?
7. Where can people buy Once in a Blue Moon? [Wherever books are sold and online
at blairpub.com.]