Contributors pictured at our celebration Bloom Stage event at the Walnut House, March 22, 2026.

Our Events

Our monthly readings and open mics are usually held on Sunday evenings. However, our days of the week vary, especially when we are partnering with other organizations and groups. Check below for upcoming events, or our Facebook or Instagram feeds for details.

We’re currently hosted at Dapper Owl Coffee Pub & Bakery , where we also co-host a monthly Writers Mingle on 2nd Sundays of most months.

We enjoy frequent collaborations with the Rutherford Arts Alliance and the Bloom Stage at the Walnut House. We also partner with MTSU Write, a non-degree creative writing program that hosts local events, facilitates writing groups, and offers from-home mentoring to writers of all genres across the nation.  Additional past and on-going partners include Murfreesboro Little Theatre, the venues at Oaklands Mansion, MTSU Honors College, Cedar Glade Brews, Cultivate Coworking, and Gallagher Unplugged, the former venue at Gallagher Guitar.

To learn about even more about local literary happenings, follow the Rutherford Arts Alliance lit news blog by our team member Taffeta Chime.

Fall 2026 Schedule

Our fall schedule includes poetry open mics, multi-genre storytelling shows, writers mingles, and "Soup and Sonnets," a Blackman High Library fundraiser benefiting Murfreesboro Rescue Mission. Click here for all the dates.

Our Goals

The goals of Poetry in the Boro are to:

• Provide a welcoming and supportive environment for expression of all community voices in poetry, spoken word and short-short prose

• Attract a diverse group of participants who live, work or study in the Murfreesboro area

• Better connect the writing communities of the Boro and MTSU

• Demonstrate and appreciate well-developed voices through featured readers and performers who will often (but may not exclusively) have local ties

• Build an outlet for better connection between poets, writers, and other artists, with community synergy and future collaborations in mind

• Have fun!

Our Team

Poetry in the Boro was founded by Murfreesboro poet Kory Wells with fellow poets Allison Boyd Justus and Denise Wilson. 

The current team includes Kory Wells, Nick Bush, Bliss Button-Hale, Taffeta Chime, Gregory Lannom, Bryanna Licciardi, and Brian Seadorf. We occasionally call long-distance on longtime team member Amie Whittemore.

Banner image: Featured poet Jacqui Swift at our December 2024 event at Dapper Owl.