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

Tangier

My meeting with Paul Bowles in Tangier, 1980

Mark Blickley

Rosamund Lehmann

Aching for Meaning: The Work of Novelist Rosamond Lehmann

Kathryn Hummel

More Essays and Interviews

Poetry

jazz sax

Where The Hell is Shafi Hadi?*

Sean Murphy

peninsula / credit: em

2 poems by Emily Tuttle

Emily Tuttle

More Poetry

Beat Generation

Kerouac: Avatar for American Buddhism by Michael Amundsen

Jack Kerouac: Avatar of American Buddhism

Michael Amundsen

Syncopated Sounds and Rhythms in Allen Ginsberg’s ‘Howl’

The Language of Bebop: Syncopated Sounds and Rhythms in Allen Ginsberg’s ‘Howl’

Nicole Henares

Howl and Other Poems - Allen Ginsberg

Allen Ginsberg: Howl (for the queer and disabled Americans)

Ben Berman Ghan

Pete Winslow - Surrealist / Beat Poet

Pete Winslow, Beat/Surrealist Poet

Denise Enck

More About the Beat Generation

Visual Art

alphabets (detail) - ji kleinberg

Eight found-word collage poems by J.I. Kleinberg

J. I. Kleinberg

Total Deals (detail) by Drew B. David

Visual Poetry by Drew B. David

Drew B. David

More Art

Essays

Dearly Beloved, Part II: Growing up in Bohemian 1950s San Francisco

Nanette Jordan

Joseph Magnin dress salon

Sleevelessness: Growing Up in Midcentury San Francisco by Nanette Jordan

Nanette Jordan

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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