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

Marcel Duchamp by Man Ray

Concealing The Light From The Lit

Bobbi Lurie

Realism: How Realistic Is It?

Realism: Just How Real Is It?

Dennis Vanatta

More Essays and Interviews

Poetry

cali / credit: em

Two poems by Amee Nassrene Broumand

Amee Nassrene Broumand

ancient glass afternoon

Three poems by Ann Eleven

Ann Eleven

More Poetry

Beat Generation

Allen Ginsberg College Censorship - Pavan - Loretta Graceffo

Resisting the Thought Police: The Untold Story of Allen Ginsberg’s Stand Against College Censorship

Loretta Graceffo

Gregory Corso mug shot -- prison

Poetic Licence: The Crime and Hard Time of Gregory Corso, or A Portrait of the Poet as a Young Felon

Gregory Stephenson

The Rebirth of the Author in On the Road by Jack Kerouac

The Rebirth of the Author in Jack Kerouac’s On the Road

Eric V. Patterson

Kerouac notebooks

Are There Any Good Unpublished Kerouac Books Left?

Paul Maher Jr.

More About the Beat Generation

Visual Art

(detail) visual poetry by hiromi suzuki

Chocolate, Cigar and Orange Pekoe: visual poems by hiromi suzuki

hiromi suzuki

Somiers(detail) - collage by Rebeka Elizegi

Eleven collages by Rebeka Elizegi

Rebeka Elizegi

More Art

Essays

photo by Daniel Tseng / unsplash

Intimacy with Doors

Bára Hladík

All Night You Dream of Ice and In the Morning Wake to a Skiff of Snow

Maya Jewell Zeller

More Essays

The EM newsletter

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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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  • On Literature
  • Beat Generation
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