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Serving Columbus & Starkville, Mississippi        (https://cdispatch.com/) Home  » (https://cdispatch.com/news/) News  » Possumtown Book Fest bringing slate of more than 50 authors   (https://cdispatch.com/news/columbus-lowndes-county/) Columbus & Lowndes County   Possumtown Book Fest bringing slate of more than 50 authors By (https://cdispatch.com/author/bsimmons/) Braden Simmons  • August 19, 2026  • 3 mins to read   (Possumtown Book Fest bringing slate of more than 50 authors)   Rotarian Dana McLean, left, speaks with Emily Liner, owner of Friendly City Books, Tuesday following the Rotary Club of Columbus meeting at Lion Hills Center. Possumtown Book Festival is returning for its third year Aug. 29 at the Rosenzweig Arts Center and is set to feature a slate of more than 50 authors of genres ranging from horror to historical fiction. Braden Simmons/Dispatch Staff  With Possumtown Book Festival coming up on its third year, Emily Liner told the Rotary Club of Columbus that it finally feels like a city fixture. Liner said her hope, similarly to her goals with the bookstore’s nonprofit, Friendly City Books Community Connection, is to continue to see it grow. (https://cdispatch.com/news/34th-tales-from-the-crypt-comes-to-life/attachment/liner-emily/) ()    Emily Liner    “There was such a great response to the first one,” Liner told The Dispatch. “Everybody immediately said, ‘Will there be another?’ So we did it again, and we had another big turnout. So I think that this is going to be a tradition for years to come.” During Tuesday’s meeting at Lion Hills Center, Liner spoke with Rotarians about the festival’s recently revealed slate of roughly 50 authors coming to speak from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Aug. 29 in the Rosenzweig Arts Center at this year’s festival. The events will include a children’s book storytime and seven different panels on genres ranging from poetry to historical fiction to cookbooks, Liner said. The event will begin with a local author showcase at 9 a.m. in the Columbus Arts Council’s gallery with 23 Mississippi-based authors discussing their works including memoirs, novels and poetry. Liner said organizers always try to attract authors that either have a direct tie with Mississippi or to the South when considering speakers and authors for the event. “We have some others who are flying in from Atlanta, from North Carolina and even from New York City,” Liner said. “One of our keynote speakers is coming from New York, but he’s got southern roots, and that’s one thing we try to prioritize.” The first keynote speaker, Murry Burgess, author of “Sparrow Loves Birds” and “Sparrow Loves Reptiles,” will be leading a children’s storytime from 9:30 to 11 a.m. in the underground room of the Rosenzweig Arts Center. Afterward children in attendance will receive a free copy of Sparrow Loves Birds, Liner said. From 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. in the gallery, Beth Ann Fennelly, poet laureate of Mississippi, and Aimee Nezhukumatathil, award-winning poet and professor of English at the University of Mississippi, will lead a discussion about their works and nonfiction. Following their discussion, from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. Clay McLeod Chapman, author of the award-winning horror book “Shiny Happy People,” and Jen Julian, author of the Southern gothic horror book “Red Rabbit Ghost,” will lead a discussion on fiction. Throughout the rest of the day, the festival will host five other panels inside the Rosenzweig Arts Center for poetry, historical fiction and cookbooks, Liner said. “We really try to make sure that there is something for everyone,” Liner said. “So doing all these different panels with these different themes is how we achieve that.” The full schedule of panels and other festival events is expected to be released this weekend, Liner said. The festival is organized by the nonprofit arm of Friendly City Books, the Friendly City Books Community Connection, Liner said. Organizing the event each year costs roughly $30,000, more than half of the nonprofit’s annual programming budget. Liner’s goal over the next year is to have the nonprofit achieve 501(c)(3) status to be in stronger contention for public and private grants and host more events in neighboring counties. “I would love to host more events throughout the Golden Triangle region and bring events and programming to Starkville and West Point, as well as this greater Northeast Mississippi region,” Liner told The Dispatch. 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