All are welcome to see a free screening of Possum Town, a new documentary about Columbus, Mississippi, and meet the filmmakers.

Click here to get a free ticket on Eventbrite. | Watch the movie trailer here!

Possum Town is a portrait of Columbus, Mississippi, as discovered through several present-day figures whose stories intersect with a rich photographic archive of the historic town.

O.N. Pruitt, a local photographer in the early 1900s, documented the gamut of Southern life over his career in one of the largest known photographic records of a small Southern town at that time. Comprised of over 140,000 images, the Pruitt collection evokes a treasure trove of historical information about daily existence in Columbus as lived 100 years ago.

As author Berkley Hudson combs through the trove of photographs, reflecting on the revelations they bare, the film explores the same themes in the lives of people today. Possum Town explores how and why we look at images, ways of seeing, and the harmony and discord between images of the past and present. The film suggests, as does the vast scope of Pruitt's work, the boundless connection we have to each other and our histories — and how history never ceases as it continues to shape life today.

Presented by the Friendly City Books Community Connection, a special project of the CREATE Foundation, in partnership with the Mississippi Film Society.

Sign up for a special Attention Lab workshop led by the Strother School of Radical Attention, creators of the book Attensity! A Manifesto of the Attention Liberation Movement and you’ll receive a free copy of the book at the event.

Email us at info@friendlycitybooks.com to register for this free program. Spots are limited!

Attention Lab workshops are collective participatory experiments in the powers of human attention. Through group practices and guided discussions, we seek to understand what attention is, what it can do, and why it's worth protecting.

“Attensity! is about how to reclaim one of our most powerful and valuable qualities—our attention—through a path back to the human things that matter: community, care, imagination, and art.”—Nathan Heller, The New Yorker

Join us for a discussion of our Community Read James by Percival Everett. Free and open to the public at MUW’s Fant Memorial Library!

Visit https://www.muw.edu/read for more information.

Get a free copy of our Community Read James by Percival Everett at Friendly City Books on Saturday, September 19 while supplies last so you’ll be ready for our first meeting on Wednesday, September 30 at the MUW Library!

Visit https://www.muw.edu/read for more information.

Join us at Zachary’s Tavern on September 17 at 5:00 pm-6:30 pm for a special book signing reception with Kathryn Stockett, author of The Help and The Calamity Club. Drop in anytime to meet the author and get your book signed, and feel free to stay for a drink!

This event is free and open to the public. A cash bar will be open for drinks, but no purchase is required to attend. Books will be available for sale on-site. For more information, contact info@friendlycitybooks.com.

Kathryn was born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi. After graduating from the University of Alabama, she moved to New York City, where she worked in magazine publishing and marketing for nine years. Her first novel, The Help, has sold over 15 million copies worldwide. She lives in Mississippi and New York City.

Join us for the third annual Possumtown Book Fest! We’ll have author panels, book signings, kids’ activities, a book fair shopping experience, and more! Free and open to the public!

Meet the authors of Cool Dog Sound, the Mississippi-based book publishing company by and for musicians, at Munson and Brothers on Saturday, July 18. Will Griffin, Sherry Cothren, and Bark will perform their music and read from their books, along with a special tap takeover by Red Panther Brewing. See y’all there!

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!

Join us as we sink our teeth into Twilight and Midnight Sun and experience the beloved story through both Bella's and Edward's perspective. During our meeting on April 27th we will also be hosting a screening of the film!

Join us at Friendly City Books’ new location at 109 5th Street North for our fifth annual Independent Bookstore Day celebration! We’ll have fun surprises and exclusive merch available for one day only. Don’t miss it!

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!

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

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!

Tales From the Crypt is an annual performance presented by the students of the Mississippi School for Math and Science. Each spring, students choose individuals buried in Columbus’s historic Friendship Cemetery, research their subjects, write scripts, source costumes and props, and perform monologues as their subjects during evening cemetery tours. Each year’s performances are unique - this is an incredible, immersive experience you don’t want to miss!

The tours are ticketed - see the QR code on the flyer or visit https://themsms.org/tales-from-the-crypt/ for more information.

Tales From the Crypt is an annual performance presented by the students of the Mississippi School for Math and Science. Each spring, students choose individuals buried in Columbus’s historic Friendship Cemetery, research their subjects, write scripts, source costumes and props, and perform monologues as their subjects during evening cemetery tours. Each year’s performances are unique - this is an incredible, immersive experience you don’t want to miss!

The tours are ticketed - see the QR code on the flyer or visit https://themsms.org/tales-from-the-crypt/ for more information.

Join us for a virtual discussion of this year's Community Read, The Barn by Wright Thompson.

Visit https://libreserves.muw.edu/event/15732674 to register.

Natchez explores the complex history and memory of the Mississippi town of the same name. 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.

The screening will be followed by a panel discussion featuring filmmakers Suzannah Hebert and Darcy McKinnon, Tracy “Rev” Collins from the film, and local community leaders Laverne Greene-Leach and Chuck Yarborough.

This event is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be provided.

Save the date for a beloved Friendly City tradition: the annual Stella Shouting Contest!

Saturday, April 11th, in honor of Columbus’s own Tennessee Williams, sign up to scream “STELLLAAAAAA!!” in your best Brando impersonation - winner gets major bragging rights!

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/

Tales From the Crypt is an annual performance presented by the students of the Mississippi School for Math and Science. Each spring, students choose individuals buried in Columbus’s historic Friendship Cemetery, research their subjects, write scripts, source costumes and props, and perform monologues as their subjects during evening cemetery tours. Each year’s performances are unique - this is an incredible, immersive experience you don’t want to miss!

The tours are ticketed - see the QR code on the flyer or visit https://themsms.org/tales-from-the-crypt/ for more information.

Tales From the Crypt is an annual performance presented by the students of the Mississippi School for Math and Science. Each spring, students choose individuals buried in Columbus’s historic Friendship Cemetery, research their subjects, write scripts, source costumes and props, and perform monologues as their subjects during evening cemetery tours. Each year’s performances are unique - this is an incredible, immersive experience you don’t want to miss!

The tours are ticketed - see the QR code on the flyer or visit https://themsms.org/tales-from-the-crypt/ for more information.

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.

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.

Join us as we sink our teeth into Twilight and Midnight Sun and experience the beloved story through both Bella's and Edward's perspective. 

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!