The store hosts the popular Thacker Mountain radio show and over 150 author events a year, and is a founding co-sponsor of the Oxford Conference for the Book.

With the help of former Director of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture Bill Ferris, the bookstore, still in its infancy, hosted authors including Toni Morrison, Allen Ginsberg, and Alice Walker for readings and book-signings.

Willie Morris became writer in residence at the University of Mississippi in 1980, and also was a great friend to the bookstore, who brought to town William Styron, James Dickey and Peter Matthiessen.

Mississippi native Richard Ford has had a long-time affiliation with the store, reading on the occasion of its 1986 expansion, and John Grisham and Larry Brown had their initial bookstore signing appearances at Square Books.

[2] This aspect of the town's relationship to the store is further evinced by Howorth's being elected to serve two terms as mayor of Oxford, 2001 - 2009.