Columbus’ own Friendly City Books is getting statewide recognition for its work organizing events and book giveaways that range from simply brightening people’s day or to sparking conversations on some of Mississippi’s toughest issues.
Friendly City Books is among five recipients of the 2025 Public Humanities Awards from the Mississippi Humanities Council, specifically getting the Humanities Partner Award. Announced on Dec. 5, the award is meant for individuals and organizations that make substantial cultural contributions to their communities through partnerships and organization. The bookstore’s many giveaways, book signings, student reading events and discussions evidently made enough of a splash to catch the council’s eye in Jackson.
“These awards give us a chance to recognize people who are doing really outstanding public humanities work,” said Stuart Rockoff, executive director for the Mississippi Humanities Council. “Friendly City Books has worked really well with the council and is doing great things in its community. We don’t often honor bookstores with these awards – it’s usually things like museums – but it’s not just a bookstore. … The impact it’s had on Columbus, on its cultural and civic life, it’s just kind of amazing.”
Emily Liner, who started Friendly City Books in 2020, told The Dispatch Wednesday that wanting to provoke discussion and fuel Columbus’ cultural fabric was an essential part of why she left her career running campaigns and government relations for tech companies in Washington, D.C. to start an independent bookstore.
“A community that reads is a healthier community,” she said. “It’s a community that demonstrates curiosity and empathy. It creates fellowship among people from different walks of life. That’s really what drives all this activity.”
To make its many events a reality, the bookstore has partnered with Columbus Municipal School District, Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science, Mississippi University for Women, the American Legion and Munson and Brothers Trading Post. It searches for local and national sponsors to fund its book giveaways, and is putting together a series of workshops in April for student poets in partnership with Mississippi Poet Laureate Catherine Pierce.
The store’s charity work has grown to the point Liner said she’ll make the store an official nonprofit in the coming years, so that it can be in the community “for generations to come.”
That said, the store’s walls are still an important component of its impact. Friendly City Books is currently in the final stages of moving from its Fifth Street location around the corner to 423 Main St. The store will close Christmas Eve to begin its move, reopening after the new year.
“We’re going to have more room for activities and events,” Liner said. “The layout is just a big open space. We’re going to have more things to do, and we’ll have a reading nook. Customer seating has always been a big request.”
Friendly City Books will also continue to hold new events. On Thursday, it invited more than 250 kindergarteners to an event with songwriter Steve Azar and illustrator Sarah Francis Hardy, handing out 300 copies of the book they wrote about Mississippi’s new state song to students and teachers. Mississippi-specific literature is prominent in the store itself too, taking up an entire section with books written by Mississippians.
The bookstore helped put together the first Possum Town Bookfest in August, which Liner said will be returning in August 2025.
“We had over 50 authors, and I’m really proud that that was part of the award commendation,” she said. “We had no idea how many people would come, given it’s our first event on a scale like that. So for 1,000 people to come when we put it together with the Columbus Arts Council … that was amazing.”
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