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

Afghanistan Sky / U.S. Army

The Consequences of Violence

Steven Thomas Howell

federico garcia lorca

Remembering Federico García Lorca

Steve Pelletier

More Essays and Interviews

Poetry

any day america

America – a poem by A.D. Winans

A.D. Winans

third daydream / credit: em

Delayed Saleslady

Serkan Engin

More Poetry

Beat Generation

The Creative Birth of Jack Kerouac

Jack Kerouac’s Creative Birth

Paul Maher Jr.

ted joans photo by larry keenan (lo res)

Ted Joans Lives! Tribute: Rik Lina, Hammond Guthrie, Richard Krech and more

Rik Lina

Old Angel Midnight

Earwitness Testimony: Sound and Sense, Word and Void in Jack Kerouac’s Old Angel Midnight

Gregory Stephenson

Big Sur - Kerouac

Prelude to Big Sur: Kerouac in Spring & Summer 1960

Paul Maher Jr.

More About the Beat Generation

Visual Art

Trembling Facade (detail) Tony Rickaby

Altered Facades by Tony Rickaby

Tony Rickaby

hummingbird wings bloom in your eye sockets and every petal cradles your bones (a found poem from Lorca's Dream by former SF Poet Laureate Alejandro Murguía)

Two collages with found poetry, by Alessandra Bava

Alessandra Bava

More Art

Essays

Marlie Centawer

Subterranean Boy

Marlie Centawer

Bellingham, WA sunset -- Boulevard Park

Spring in Cascadia

David Marshall

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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