Upcoming Events at Friendly City Books
Presented in partnership with the Friendly City Books Community Connection, a special project of the CREATE Foundation
Book Page Clothing Competition
Join us at the Columbus Arts Council for a special fashion show! Students will walk the runway in wearable garments they have created from book pages and newspaper. Come check it out and cheer for your favorite!
Author Event: Catherine Pierce & Michael Kardos
Our friends Catherine Pierce and Michael Kardos are in town for a Friendly City Heist!
On Monday, April 6, we're taking over Bushy's Clubhouse for a friends and family get together. Kids and adults alike can play all the arcade games, and we'll have all of Katie and Mike's new books: Fun City Heist (Mike's novel), Foxes for Everybody (Katie's essays), Dear Beast (Katie's poetry), and Quick Change (Mike's short stories).
RSVP on Facebook to let us know you’re coming!
VERY IMPORTANT: Street parking only. Please do not block any driveways or park at the car wash or your car may be towed ... and that would not be a very Fun City Heist.
Community Read Discussion: The Barn, Part IV
Join the community discussion of Part IV of Wright Thompson’s The Barn at Fant Memorial Library, located on the MUW campus. Visit muw.edu/read for more information.
All In the Same Breath: Interview Poetry Workshop (Virtual)
Using poetry examples and interview style prompts, we will help each other explore our lives (real and imagined!) in a free-for-all poetry romp. We will read some autobiographical poems and use them, along with additional prompts, to write some wild and wonderful and maybe even true things! No charge. Registration is limited. Some digital materials will be sent to you in advance after you sign up.
RSVP required. Email spokenwordandarts@gmail.com.
For more information, visit https://allinthesamebreath.org/
Annual Stella Yelling Contest
Save the date for a beloved Friendly City tradition: The annual Stella Yelling competition!
Natchez Documentary Screening and Panel
The Mississippi Humanities Council is partnering with local organizations to bring screenings of the award-winning documentary Natchez to venues across the state. Each screening will be followed by a panel discussion.
Directed by Suzannah Herbert, Natchez explores the complex history and memory of the Mississippi town. Equal parts amusing and disturbing, we journey through an antebellum tourist destination at a crossroads as it grapples with a deeply troubled history so thoroughly ingrained in its present that we’re left to wonder if it’s actually past at all.
Book Club: The Macabre with Cursed Books
Cursed Books is our horror book club. April’s pick is The Macabre by Kosoko Jackson. Our club meets on the third Tuesday of every month at 7 pm at Friendly City Books, 109 5th Street North. See you there!
IDEA Book Talk: The Deepest South of All with Richard Grant (VIRTUAL EVENT)
This virtual event is hosted by MUW Fant Memorial Library.
Registration is required for this event. There are 20 seats available.
Visit https://libreserves.muw.edu/event/16250705 to register.
Richard Grant, author of the multi-award-winning Dispatches from Pluto and The Deepest South of All, is originally from London, England but spent several years living in a remote farmhouse in the Mississippi Delta, an experience chronicled in Dispatches from Pluto. He is a traveler, author of nonfiction books, a journalist, and a documentary film writer. His previous books include the adventure travel classic God’s Middle Finger: Into the Heart of the Sierra Madre and American Nomads, which was made into an acclaimed BBC documentary with Grant as the writer and star. Currently a contributor to Smithsonian magazine, Grant has published journalism in Esquire, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and many other publications.
Biographical information from https://www.simonandschuster.com/authors/Richard-Grant/40124613
Feminist Book Club: Women Don’t Owe You Pretty
Join us for Lessa Harvey’s Feminist Book Club! Lessa is an 1884 Fellow in the Women’s College at the Mississippi University for Women. She came up with the idea to host a feminist book club while working as an intern at Friendly City Books as part of The W’s Nancy Yates Community Engagement Program.
Join the group on April 22nd at 4:00 p.m. for a discussion of Florence Given’s Women Don’t Owe You Pretty.
The Feminist Book Club is free and open to the public and MUW students.
April’s meeting will be at the new Friendly City Books location of 109 5th Street North, right beside Coffee House on 5th!
Book Club: Cold-Hearted Rake with Spice Girls
Spice Girls is our romance book club. April’s pick is Cold-Hearted Rake by Lisa Kleypas. Our club meets on the fourth Tuesday of every month at 7 pm at Friendly City Books, 109 5th Street North. See you there!
Feminist Book Club: Parable of the Sower
Join us for Lessa Harvey’s Feminist Book Club! Lessa is an 1884 Fellow in the Women’s College at the Mississippi University for Women. She came up with the idea to host a feminist book club while working as an intern at Friendly City Books as part of The W’s Nancy Yates Community Engagement Program.
Join the group on March 25th at 4:00 p.m. for a discussion of Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower.
The Feminist Book Club is free and open to the public and MUW students.
March’s meeting will be at the new Friendly City Books location of 109 5th Street North, right beside Coffee House on 5th!
Book Club: I Married a Lizardman with Spice Girls
Spice Girls is our romance book club. March’s pick is I Married a Lizardman by Regine Abel. Our club meets on the fourth Tuesday of every month at 7 pm at Friendly City Books. This month’s meeting will be in our new location at 109 5th Street North! See you there!
Author Event: Elise Smith at MUW
Meet Art Historian and Author Elise Smith, who will discuss her book Southern Women, Southern Landscapes: Cultural Reflections on the Garden, 1870-1970.
All are welcome to attend. Lunch will be provided to the first 20 attendees.
Visit https://libreserves.muw.edu/event/16244683 for more information.
Book Club: Trad Wife with Cursed Books
Cursed Books is our horror book club. March’s pick is Trad Wife by Saratoga Schaefer. Our club meets on the third Tuesday of every month at 7 pm at Friendly City Books. This month’s meeting will be at our new location of 109 5th Street North. See you there!
All In the Same Breath: Arts & Culture Exchange - Create & Connect (2nd session)
Participate as a presenter (5 minute time-slots) or as an audience member and join the discussion.
Friendly and welcoming environment, works in progress welcome.
All arts welcome, even ones we haven’t thought of yet – if it’s art to you it’s probably art to us!
Sign up for a time-slot or take your chances and just show up! :)
For more information, visit https://allinthesamebreath.org/
All In the Same Breath: Arts & Culture Exchange - Create & Connect (1st session)
Participate as a presenter (5 minute time-slots) or as an audience member and join the discussion.
Friendly and welcoming environment, works in progress welcome.
All arts welcome, even ones we haven’t thought of yet – if it’s art to you it’s probably art to us!
Sign up for a time-slot or take your chances and just show up! :)
For more information, visit https://allinthesamebreath.org/
Grand Re-Opening!
We’re reopening in our new location at 109 5th Street North on Saturday, February 28! Join us for the big celebration!
Feminist Book Club: What About Men?
Join us for Lessa Harvey’s Feminist Book Club! Lessa is an 1884 Fellow in the Women’s College at the Mississippi University for Women. She came up with the idea to host a feminist book club while working as an intern at Friendly City Books as part of The W’s Nancy Yates Community Engagement Program.
Join the group on February 25th at 4:00 p.m. for a discussion of Caitlin Moran’s What About Men?
The Feminist Book Club is free and open to the public and MUW students.
PLEASE NOTE LOCATION CHANGE: for this month only, the Feminist Book Club meeting will be held in the Gail P. Gunter room of Fant Memorial Library on MUW’s campus.
Book Club: Game Changer with Spice Girls
Spice Girls is our romance book club. February’s pick is Game Changer by Rachel Reid. Our club meets on the fourth Tuesday of every month at 7 pm at Friendly City Books. This month’s meeting will be in our new location at 109 5th Street North! See you there!
All In the Same Breath: Arts & Culture Exchange - Interview Poetry Workshop
Using poetry examples and interview style prompts, we will help each other explore our lives (real and imagined!) in a free-for-all poetry romp.
RSVP required - maximum of 10 seats available.
For more information, visit https://allinthesamebreath.org/
Book Club: The Reformatory with Cursed Books
Cursed Books is our horror book club. February’s pick is The Reformatory by Tananarive Due. Our club meets on the third Tuesday of every month at 7 pm at Friendly City Books. See you there!
Author Event: Kimiko Hahn at MSU
The Mississippi State University College of Arts & Sciences and the Department of English are proud to sponsor an evening with poet Kimiko Hahn at Taylor Auditorium in McCool Hall. After a reading from her 2024 collection The Ghost Forest, attendees will have the opportunity for a Q&A and book signing.
Kimiko Hahn is the author of ten books of poems, including: Foreign Bodies (W. W. Norton, 2020); Brain Fever (WWN, 2014), and Toxic Flora (WWN, 2010), both collections prompted by science; The Narrow Road to the Interior (WWN, 2006) a collection that takes its title from Basho’s famous poetic journal; The Unbearable Heart (Kaya, 1996), which received an American Book Award; Earshot (Hanging Loose Press, 1992), which was awarded the Theodore Roethke Memorial Poetry Prize and an Association of Asian American Studies Literature Award.
Honors: New York State Poet, Guggenheim Fellowship, PEN/Voelcker Award, Shelley Memorial Prize, The Poetry Foundation’s Ruth Lilly Lifetime Achievement Award, The American Book Award
Biographical information from https://kimikohahn.com/
Bookstore Move Volunteer Days!
Sunday, February 15: Bring a friend to Friendly City Books and help us make a human chain to move our books around the corner to our new home! Meet at our current location at 423 Main Street at 2 pm.
Monday, February 16: Help us take down our shelves and reinstall them at the new location. Please bring power tools and/or a dolly or handtruck if you can! We’ll be in our current location at 423 Main Street starting at 10 am, and we’ll be in our new location at 109 5th Street North in the afternoon until 6 pm.
People pass books down a chain to help the bookstore October Books move to a new location on Sunday in Southampton, England. (NPR)
Author Event: Ralph Eubanks Book Talk & Blues Show
Save the date for a book talk with special guests W. Ralph Eubanks and C.T. Salazar, followed by a performance from Delta blues duo Edna Nicole and Rev. Slim. Join us on Thursday, Feb. 12 at 5:30 pm at the Columbus Arts Council at 501 Main Street for a night like no other — free and open to the public!
Ralph Eubanks will be in conversation with C. T. Salazar to discuss his new nonfiction book When It’s Darkness on the Delta: How America’s Richest Soil Became Its Poorest Land. Books will be available for purchase and signing. Click here to purchase online.
This event is produced in partnership with the Friendly City Books Community Connection, a special project of the CREATE Foundation.
Community Read Discussion: The Barn, Part III
Join the community discussion of Part III of Wright Thompson’s The Barn at Fant Memorial Library, located on the MUW campus. Visit muw.edu/read for more information.
Book Club: The Dragon's Bride with Spice Girls
Spice Girls is our monthly romance book club. January’s pick is The Dragon’s Bride by Katee Robert.
Spice Girls is a collaboration between Columbus-Lowndes Public Library System and Friendly City Books and meets on the fourth Tuesday of every month at 7 pm at Friendly City Books. See you there!
Book Club: Crafting for Sinners with Cursed Books
Cursed Books is our horror book club. January’s pick is Crafting for Sinners by Jenny Kiefer. Our club meets on the third Tuesday of every month at 7 pm at Friendly City Books. See you there!
Public Reading of Letter from Birmingham Jail
All Columbus citizens are invited to celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day at “From Words to Work: Pressing Beyond the Dream” presented by the City of Columbus on Monday, Jan. 19, 2026. Our third annual public reading of Letter from Birmingham Jail will take place immediately following the Prayer Breakfast at the Trotter Convention Center.
8:00 AM - Freedom Walk from the Municipal Complex to the Trotter Convention Center
9:00 AM - Prayer Breakfast at the Trotter Convention Center (upper level)
10:00 AM - Letter from Birmingham Jail at the Trotter Convention Center (lower level)
These events are free and open to the public, and free copies of Letter from Birmingham Jail will be provided on a first come, first serve basis thanks to the Columbus Lowndes Chapter of the NAACP and the Friendly City Books Community Connection, a special project of the CREATE Foundation.
5th Anniversary Celebration!
Mark your calendars for Friendly City Books’ 5th birthday party on Small Business Saturday! Stay tuned for more details.
Landon Bryant: Twas the Night Before Christmas, Y’all
Join us for an afternoon of festive fun with our friend Landon Bryant — better known as @landontalks, the most popular Mississippian on the internet! On Saturday, November 22 at 2 pm, we’ll have a kids’ craft activity, storytime, and a meet and greet at Friendly City Books, complete with Christmas cookies and egg nog. Come get your picture made and your book signed!
Thacker Mountain: Michael Farris Smith
Thacker Mountain Radio Hour is coming to Columbus for a special taping with Michael Farris Smith, Hartle Road, and The W’s Jazz Combo. Join us for this free event on Sunday, October 26, at 3 pm — and bring a lawn chair!
Spice Girls Book Club: Tusk Love
Spice Girls is our new monthly romance book club! Our pick for October is Tusk Love by Thea Guanzon.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
A merchant’s daughter who yearns for adventure gets more than she bargained for when she falls for a broodingly handsome stranger in this saucy romantasy from the author of The Hurricane Wars.
“A true delight of a book! Spicy and heartfelt—this one is a winner all around.”—Katee Robert, author of Neon Gods
Spice Girls is a collaboration between Columbus-Lowndes Public Library System and Friendly City Books and meets on the fourth Tuesday of every month at 7 pm at Friendly City Books. See you there!
MUW Welty Symposium: Saturday Morning
The Eudora Welty Writers' Symposium is held each October in honor of The W's most famous alumna. A diverse group of Southern writers and scholars are invited to present their work. All Symposium events will be held October 23-25, 2025 on the MUW campus and are free and open to the public. The Symposium will also be live-streamed online. To learn more, visit muw.edu/welty.
Session 2:
Kendall Dunkelberg, Tree Fall with Birdsong
Jordan LaHaye Fontenot, Home of the Happy
Semyak Shertok, No Rhododendron
Lauren Rhoades, Split the Baby
MUW Welty Gala Keynote Jeff Henderson
Food Network celebrity chef Jeff Henderson will speak at the 2025 Welty Gala, an an annual fundraiser for the MUW Scholarship Fund. Click here to purchase tickets.
From humble beginnings in South Central Los Angeles to success as an award-winning celebrity chef and best-selling author, Jeff Henderson is a powerful example of personal transformation. Since he discovered his passion and gift for cooking in prison, Jeff turned his life around and today serves as a popular and powerful voice for self-transformation.
Alive with the energy of street life, the sober reality of prison, and the visceral thrill of being inside the fast-paced kitchens of great restaurants, Cooked is an extraordinary memoir that chronicles a gifted man's against-the-odds journey of second chances.
MUW Welty Symposium: Friday Afternoon
The Eudora Welty Writers' Symposium is held each October in honor of The W's most famous alumna. A diverse group of Southern writers and scholars are invited to present their work. All Symposium events will be held October 23-25, 2025 on the MUW campus and are free and open to the public. The Symposium will also be live-streamed online. To learn more, visit muw.edu/welty.
Session 2:
Robert Busby, Bodock
Olivia Clare Friedman, An Arm Fixed to a Wing
Carrie R. Moore, Make Your Way Home
Ephemera Awards Reading
MUW Welty Symposium: Friday Morning
The Eudora Welty Writers' Symposium is held each October in honor of The W's most famous alumna. A diverse group of Southern writers and scholars are invited to present their work. All Symposium events will be held October 23-25, 2025 on the MUW campus and are free and open to the public. The Symposium will also be live-streamed online. To learn more, visit muw.edu/welty.
Session 1:
drea brown, Conjuring the Haint
Addie Citchens, Dominion
Kathleen Driskell, Goat-Footed Gods
Rickey Fayne, The Devil Three Times
MUW Welty Symposium Keynote: Ashley M. Jones
Award-winning poet Ashley M. Jones will give the keynote for the 37th Annual Eudora Welty Writers' Symposium at MUW’s Poindexter Hall.
In her fourth poetry collection Lullaby for the Grieving, Jones studies the multifaceted nature of grief: the personal grief of losing her father, and the political grief tied to Black Southern identity. How does one find a path through the deep sorrow of losing a parent? What wonders of Blackness have to be suppressed to make way for “progress”?
Journeying through landscapes of Alabama, the Middle Passage and Underground Railroad, interior spaces of loss and love, and her father's garden, Jones constructs both an elegy for her father and a celebration of the sacred exuberance and audacity of life.
Ashley M. Jones served as the first Black and youngest Poet Laureate of Alabama from 2022-2026. She is the author of three previous collections of poetry, including Reparations Now!, longlisted for the PEN Voelker Poetry Award. Jones and her work have been featured by Poetry, Good Morning America, the BBC, the New York Times and other publications. Jones holds an MFA in Poetry from Florida International University, and she is currently a PhD student in English at Old Dominion University. She is the founding director of the Magic City Poetry Festival in Birmingham, Alabama.
Feminist Book Club: The Book Club for Troublesome Women
Join the MUW Women’s College Colloquium for their next Feminist Book Club meeting hosted by 1884 Fellow Lessa Harvey.
Margaret Ryan never really meant to start a book club — or a feminist revolution — in her buttoned-up suburb, in this humorous, thought provoking, and nostalgic romp through a pivotal and tumultuous American year … an ode to self-discovery, persistence, and the power of sisterhood.
“Ideal for fans of historical fiction and those who enjoyed Bonnie Garmus’s Lessons in Chemistry, Kristin Hannah’s The Women, or Kate Quinn's The Briar Club.” — Library Journal Starred Review
Cursed Books: Out There Screaming
Join us for our horror book club Cursed Books! We’re reading Out There Screaming by Jordan Peele for October.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
WINNER OF THE BRAM STOKER AWARD
The visionary writer and director of Get Out, Us, and Nope, and founder of Monkeypaw Productions, curates this groundbreaking anthology of all-new stories of Black horror, exploring not only the terrors of the supernatural but the chilling reality of injustice that haunts our nation.
“Every piece is strong and memorable, making this not only likely to be the best anthology of the year, but one for the ages.”—The Guardian
Cursed Books meets on the third Tuesday of every month at 7 pm at Friendly City Books. See you there!