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

Notes on the Uses of the New Lyric You

Notes on the Uses of the New Lyric “You”

Tom Holmes

The Invitation of the Mirror: Jonathan Lethem & Me, from the Margin to the Mainstream

Jasun Horsley

More Essays and Interviews

Poetry

Summer’s Onslaught Edging Into May

Sam Silva

on the borderline / credit: de

Three poems by Tasha Cotter

Tasha Cotter

More Poetry

Beat Generation

Ted Joans Lives! Tribute (9)

Empty Mirror

Conversations with Allen Ginsberg

Book Review — First Thought: Conversations with Allen Ginsberg

Marc Olmsted

Allen Ginsberg - HOWL

The Howl Hat

Jason Stoneking

Visions of Cody, a book of martyrdom

Yannis Livadas

More About the Beat Generation

Visual Art

splash by JC Olsthoorn

cuba shoreline

JC Olsthoorn

-blue 11 no. 2 (detail) by bruno neiva

re-blues 11 series

bruno neiva

More Art

Essays

Candy Darling on her Deathbed by Peter Hujar, used as cover photo for I Am a Bird Now / fair use

Candy Says, by Kaiya Gordon

Kaiya Gordon

Dearly Beloved - Nanette Jordan

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

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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