A Writer's Guide to Starkville, Mississippi

This is the main branch of the Starkville-Oktibbeha County Public Library System, and it is closed Sundays. Its Local History and Genealogy Annex has a reference collection of Mississippi authors and a second room of old, rare, and autographed books. Starkville telephone directories and school annuals are there too. The annex is open by appointment through the online research request form.

Community members can borrow from Mitchell with a card from a participating Mississippi Library Partnership public library. A Courtesy Card from the Access and Information Desk on the second floor also works. Meeting rooms, study rooms, and the John Grisham Room can be reserved.

More than 700 manuscript collections are here, along with Mississippiana, rare books, and the history of the Golden Triangle of Starkville, Columbus, and West Point. The John Grisham Collection holds manuscripts of his novels and screenplays and his correspondence, though the literary files are restricted. The John Grisham Room, an exhibit space, is on Mitchell's third floor. Apply for an appointment with the research application and bring photo ID.

The Columbus system's downtown branch has run a Local History Department since 1962. Its Buckley Genealogy Room holds more than 5,000 books and nearly 1,000 reels of newspaper and government-record microfilm. The Billups-Garth Archival Room keeps court records, city minutes, maps, photographs, and scrapbooks. The library is closed Sundays.

The W's library in Columbus is a federal depository, so its government documents are open to the public by law. It also has Archives and Special Collections, the Athena Commons repository, and the Mims Digitization and Conservation Lab.

Emily Liner opened this general independent bookstore in downtown Columbus in December 2020. It buys back used books and publishes original books two or three times a year. Several book clubs meet at the store, and its author talks reach Starkville too. It is closed Sundays.

Umble is a Starkville specialty coffee roastery with a café. It opens mornings, Monday through Saturday.

Gratia serves coffee and wholesome food in downtown Columbus. A Visit Columbus writer liked its big windows and sofa and wanted to come back to sit and read there.

Dave's calls itself Starkville's oldest pizzeria and its only neighborhood tavern. It is a dimly lit pub with deep-dish and thin-crust pizza and local bands. Singer/Songwriter Night is every Monday and Tuesday.

Munson and Brothers in Columbus calls itself a pizzeria, beer garden, and apothecary. It hosts live music and open mic nights, and it is closed Sundays.

MSU's English department brings poets and fiction writers to campus for readings and craft talks. Readings are free and open to the public, with a Q&A and book signing afterward. Alice Carol Caldwell and her family endowed the series in memory of Price Caldwell, the English professor who founded the university's creative writing program.

Friendly City Books Community Connection, the bookstore's nonprofit arm and a project of the CREATE Foundation, runs this free festival in Columbus each late summer. Authors from across the South sit on panels and sign books. There is a writing workshop, too, and storytime for children.

Each October, Mississippi University for Women in Columbus invites Southern writers and scholars to present their work around a yearly theme, in honor of its alumna Eudora Welty. Every event is free and open to the public. You can also watch the live stream.

The Mississippi Book Festival is free and held each year at and around the State Capitol in Jackson. Authors of fiction, narrative nonfiction, poetry, and children's and young adult books appear on hour-long panels and sign afterward. Self-published authors have Authors Alley, and regional independent bookstores line Booksellers Row. Its online archive keeps panel videos and the Write On, Mississippi! podcast.

MSU's Institute for the Humanities runs a public humanities program of events. For the wider community, it offers the Conversations With a Humanist series.

This research library at Mississippi State holds 15,000 linear feet of Grant material, from correspondence and research notes to photographs and scrapbooks. The Frank and Virginia Williams Collection of Lincolniana is here as well. Researchers work by appointment, with help from staff, and the library also runs an interactive museum.

Scholars Junction is MSU's institutional repository, run by MSU Libraries and its Scholarly Communication Team. It hosts MSU journals and peer-reviewed series. Theses and dissertations are here too.

The state humanities council is based in Jackson. It makes grants to nonprofit organizations for public humanities work, from exhibits and oral histories to film, radio, and online productions. Its Speakers Bureau offers free talks by historians, writers, and storytellers, and the council presents the Public Humanities Awards.

Environmental History is a quarterly journal on the changing relationships between humans and the environment over time. Its editors, Stephen Brain and Mark D. Hersey, are at Mississippi State University, where the editorial office is in Allen Hall. University of Chicago Press publishes it for the American Society for Environmental History and the Forest History Society. Preparing an article for Environmental History

Since 1990, Mississippi University for Women and the University Press of Mississippi have given this prize for a book of scholarship in women's studies, Southern studies, or modern letters. A faculty panel at The W judges manuscripts the press has accepted through its regular submission process. The press publishes the winning book, and its author is invited to speak at the Eudora Welty Writers' Symposium.

The state arts agency gives these competitive fellowships to Mississippi artists whose work shows a high standard of artistic merit.

Individual Project Grants fund projects organized by or for a single Mississippi artist. Mini-Grants can cover workshop or conference travel and registration, promotional materials, or artistic supplies.

The Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters has honored Mississippi artists since 1980. Its literary categories are fiction, nonfiction, poetry, life writing, and youth literature. Works are entered by nomination, and winners are honored at an awards weekend.

The Mississippi Library Association has given these awards since 1987 for a book published in the previous three years, in adult fiction, adult nonfiction, or youth categories. Living authors qualify if they were born in Mississippi or have lived there at least five consecutive years, whatever the book's subject. MLA members make the nominations.

This page gathers grants and writing resources for MSU students in one place.

The Starkville store makes black-and-white and color copies in letter, legal, and tabloid sizes. It can coil-bind, laminate, collate, and fold, and it puts reports into presentation folders.

The Columbus store prints and binds reports and presentations. It also handles brochures, postcards, and large-format posters and banners.