Empty Mirror

a literary magazine

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Empty Mirror 25th Anniversary

Empty Mirror celebrated its 25th anniversary on May 31, 2025! While we are currently on hiatus, we invite you to enjoy a quarter century of writing and art in our archives.

Click to read any of the pieces featured below, read more from the category, or refresh the page for a fresh selection!

On Literature

Realism: How Realistic Is It?

Realism: Just How Real Is It?

Dennis Vanatta

Pablo Neruda and the Virtues of Laziness by Joseph Rodgers

Pablo Neruda and the Virtues of Laziness

Joseph Rodgers

More Essays and Interviews

Poetry

Big Sur / credit: James Donovan

Sleeping by Big Sur

James K. Moran

Summer’s Onslaught Edging Into May

Sam Silva

More Poetry

Beat Generation

Ted Joans WOW sun logo

Ted Joans Lives! Coreley Coit, Kenya Rodriguez, Valery Oisteanu, Hidani Ditmars

Empty Mirror

photo by Bruno Cervera / Unsplash

Blowing: Poetry Meets Music in the Writing of the Beat Generation

Eric V. Patterson

Ted Joans Lives!

Ted Joans Lives! A Tribute

Empty Mirror

The Haunted Life and Other Writings by Jack Kerouac

Kerouac Before the Jazz: a review of “The Haunted Life”

Jim Cherry

More About the Beat Generation

Visual Art

Bride - Rehan Miskci

Void: Photography of Displacement

Rehan Miskci

Lauralee Sikorski

Almost There: Paintings by Lauralee Sikorski

Lauralee Sikorski

More Art

Essays

map and coffee / via unsplash

Becoming Jill Kerouac

Amelia Hruby

Icarus / credit: de

Icarus Regrets Every Tired Muscle

Wm. Anthony Connolly

More Essays

The EM newsletter

Receive fresh poetry, reviews, essays, art, and literary news every Wednesday!

Empty Mirror

Established in 2000 and edited by Denise Enck, Empty Mirror is an online literary magazine that publishes new work each Friday.

Each week EM features several poems each by one or two poets; reviews; critical essays; visual art; and personal essays.

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