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Kristin Garth on her new collection, The Meadow — an interview by Amy Suzanne

Kristin Garth and Amy Suzanne

Kristin Garth The Meadow poetry

Kristin Garth, the author of several superb poetry collections, has built a career out of bringing together elements that seem strange in concert: Libraries and sex; Barbie dollhouses and stripping; … [Read more...]

Carlos Moreno, Translator of Agustín Guambo’s Andean Nuclear Spring, Interviewed by Clara B. Jones

Clara B. Jones

Agustín Guambo, Andean Nuclear Spring, translated by Carlos Moreno

It is not every day that one reads a poetry collection destined to become a collector's item. However, the emerging Ecuadorian poet, Agustín Guambo's, Andean Nuclear Spring, translated by Carlos … [Read more...]

Sitar and Sanskrit: Bill Wolak Interviews Srinivas Reddy

Bill Wolak and Srinivas Reddy

Srinivas Reddy

Srinivas Reddy began his musical training as a guitarist and composer. In 1998 he graduated from Brown University with a BA in South Asian Studies and completed his senior project entitled NaadaSat, a … [Read more...]

Boats for Women: An Interview with Poet Sandra Yannone

Lauren Davis and Sandra Yannone

Boats for Women - poems by Sandra Yannone

I first met Sandra Yannone through a series of emails, as one does in this day and age. She had found my work at a small bookstore in Washington State, and being the supportive literary … [Read more...]

Beautiful Raft: An Interview with Tina Barry

Hannah Grieco and Tina Barry

Beautiful Raft by Tina Barry

Tina Barry is a poetry and fiction writer who mixes and bends genres with a deft touch. Her work can be found in journals and anthologies, on lists of Pushcart nominations, and in two larger … [Read more...]

Screaming To Escape From All Limitations: An Interview with John Digby

John Digby and Bill Wolak

collage artist and poet John Digby

John Digby was born in London in 1938. He began writing Surrealist poetry from the early 1970s. He was influenced by Breton, Eluard, Arp, and Desnos. Although he was living in England, the first … [Read more...]

Faces on the Tip of My Tongue by Emmanuelle Pagano: Nataliya Deleva interviews translators Sophie Lewis and Jennifer Higgins

Nataliya Deleva, Sophie Lewis and Jennifer Higgins

Faces on the Tip of My Tongue - Emmanuelle Pagano

I met Sophie Lewis and Jennifer Higgins at the launch event of Faces on the Tip of My Tongue (Peirene Press) in the cosy bookstore [email protected] The conversation unfolded in a relaxed and … [Read more...]

Peacebuilding Through the Arts: An Interview with Mahmood Karimi Hakak

Mahmood Karimi Hakak and Bill Wolak

Mahmood Karimi Hakak - interview with Bill Wolak

Mahmood Karimi Hakak is a poet, author, and translator. In addition, he is a theater and film artist whose creative and scholarly works are focused on peacebuilding through the arts. He is the founder … [Read more...]

Writing Through Icons: Rosalind Palermo Stevenson and Stephanie Dickinson on Franz Kafka and Jean Seberg

Rosalind Palermo Stevenson and Stephanie Dickinson

Stephanie Dickinson and Rosalind Palermo Stevenson conversation

Authors Rosalind Palermo Stevenson and Stephanie Dickinson converse about writing through the personas of Franz Kafka and Jean Seberg. Rosalind Palermo Stevenson: Stephanie, your poetic and … [Read more...]

It Was The Scarlet That Did It: An Interview with Sarah Trembath

Hannah Grieco and Sarah Trembath

Sarah Trembath interview

I first heard Sarah Trembath speak at a literary conference in Arlington, VA. I was new to the literary world, and this particular panel was focused on the different ways to publish long-form work. … [Read more...]

Clara B. Jones interviews poet Reuben Jackson

Clara B. Jones

Scattered Clouds: New and Selected Poems by Reuben Jackson

Each month I attend a poetry reading at Zed's Cafe in Silver Spring, MD. Reuben Jackson, poet, jazz scholar, educator, and archivist, was the featured speaker on October 4th and, before he had … [Read more...]

A conversation with poet Meaghan Quinn

Lauren Davis and Meaghan Quinn

Slow Dance Bullets by Meaghan Quinn

Meaghan Quinn is a poet of the body and the spirit, combining both subjects in poems which celebrate the deeper struggles of being human. I met Quinn at the Bennington College Writing Seminars while … [Read more...]

Love, Unforseen Poetry, and Other Radical Reforms: An interview with the Bulgarian poet Gueorgui Konstantinov

Bill Wolak and Gueorgui Konstantinov

Gueorgui Konstantinov interview and poems

Born in Pleven, Bulgaria, in 1943, Gueorgui Konstantinov graduated from the University of Sofia majoring in Bulgarian Philology in 1967. Since then, he has been employed as an Editor in the Literary … [Read more...]

In Conversation with Patricia Arquette, Oscar Winner and Human Rights Activist

Emma Eden Ramos and Patricia Arquette

Patricia Arquette interview - Emma Eden Ramos

I first encountered actress Patricia Arquette in the early 2000s when, as a young teenager, I saw David Lynch’s Lost Highway (1997) for the first time. Growing up surrounded by photos of Marlene … [Read more...]

Our Ironic Conditions are Shooting Back at Us: A Conversation with Vanessa Blakeslee

Madison Jade and Vanessa Blakeslee

An interview with author Vanessa Blakeslee

Vanessa Blakeslee's latest book, Perfect Conditions: stories (Curbside Splendor, 2018), is the winner of the 2019 IPPY Silver Medal for Short Story Fiction, finalist for the Foreword Reviews’ 2018 … [Read more...]

Bespoke Books: An interview with Jason Stoneking

Jason Stoneking and Celia Galey

Jason Stoneking and Celia Daley

Celia Galey recently caught up with Jason Stoneking in Paris, to talk with him about his current series of unique, handwritten, Bespoke Books. The interview is transcribed here. Celia: So first I … [Read more...]

A Conversation with Risa Denenberg

Lauren Davis and Risa Denenberg

poet Risa Denenberg and her book, slight faith

Risa Denenberg is a Pacific Northwest poet and publisher. We met during her launch of slight faith at Imprint Books in Port Townsend, Washington. She slipped a free copy into my hands, her … [Read more...]

“Write What My Spirit Demands”: An Interview with Devorah Major on Writing in Multiple Genres

Rochelle Spencer and Devorah Major

Writing in more than one genre can free a writer’s creativity and open up ways of interacting with the world, but writing in multiple genres means making the mental switch from one form to another. … [Read more...]

Ian Haight in conversation with Dennis Maloney: writer, translator, editor of White Pine Press

Ian Haight and Dennis Maloney

Ian Haight in conversation with Dennis Maloney, writer, translator and publsher of White Pine Press.

Dennis Maloney is an award-winning poet, translator, and founding editor of White Pine Press. His works of translation include The Poet and the Sea: Poems of Juan Ramon Jimenez, The House in the Sand … [Read more...]

An interview with Richard Kigel, author of Heav’nly Tidings From the Afric Muse: The Grace and Genius of Phillis Wheatley

Richard Kigel and Denise Enck

Phillis Wheatley Biography - Richard Kigel

Richard Kigel is a historian and educator with an interest in 18th and 19th-century American history. His first book, Becoming Abraham Lincoln: The Coming of Age of Our Greatest President, recounts … [Read more...]

The Drift of Desire: An Interview with Yongshin Cho

Bill Wolak

The Crowd (detail) by Yongshin Cho

Yongshin Cho is a media artist who has been working in Paris and Seoul. After receiving his BA in painting from Hongik University, Seoul, in 1985, Mr. Cho went on to earn his BA and Master of Fine … [Read more...]

Anything Can Happen: Bruno Sourdin in conversation with Gary Cummiskey

Gary Cummiskey

Bruno Sourdin interview with Gary Cummiskey

Bruno Sourdin is a French poet and collagist. He was born in 1950 in the Mont-Saint-Michel area. After studying journalism in Paris, he travelled in Morocco, Egypt, and India. He now lives in … [Read more...]

Secret of the Masters: An Interview with Poet Edward Field

James Schwartz

Edward Field and partner Neil

This interview was conducted in September 2016 and first published, along with the poem "Secret of the Masters," the next month in the now-defunct Eris Magazine. The poem "Doggy Love" is published … [Read more...]

For Beat’s Sake: An Interview with Carolyn Cassady

Jon Alan Carroll

an interview with Carolyn Cassady

We all live inside history, and Carolyn Cassady has seen her share. Ms. Cassady was gracious and open when she sat for an interview at her home in Monte Sereno, not far from Los Gatos. Carolyn … [Read more...]

An interview with Argentinian poet, publisher and translator, Juan Arabia

Neil Leadbeater and Juan Arabia

Juan Arabia (b.1983 in Buenos Aires, Argentina) is a poet, translator and literary critic. He studied Social Sciences at the University of Buenos Aires and is now the director and publisher of the … [Read more...]

An interview on Jack Kerouac and Library of America

Paul Maher Jr.

Jack Kerouac - Library of America

March 2015 will mark the occasion of the publication of the third volume of Jack Kerouac works published by Library of America. I took this occasion to catch up with editor, Todd Tietchen, assistant … [Read more...]

Yannis Livadas: A double interview

Yannis Livadas

Yannis Livadas double interview

These interviews were conducted for Quorum Magazine, which is based in Croatia. This is their first appearance in English. Interview No. 1 Tomica Bajsic interviewed the poet Yannis Livadas for … [Read more...]

Interview – Paul Maher Jr., author of Burning Furiously Beautiful: The True Story of Jack Kerouac’s On the Road

Paul Maher Jr.

Burning Furiously Beautiful: The True Story of Jack Kerouac's On the Road

Burning Furiously Beautiful: The True Story of Jack Kerouac's On the Road is an accurate, up-to-date, meticulously researched account of how Jack Kerouac's 1957 novel, On the Road came to be … [Read more...]

David Handley interviews Paul Rogers about his work & the On the Road illustrations

David Handley

On the Road illustartion copyright Paul Rogers

Chances are that if I said the names Sal Paradise, Dean Moriarty or Carlo Marx that you would already know a couple of things about them. You’d know that I was talking about the generation defining … [Read more...]

David Handley’s interview with Author Alex Preston

David Handley

Alex Preston Books

Alex Preston was born in Worthing, West Sussex in 1979. He is the author of two critically acclaimed novels, 2010's This Bleeding City, and The Revelations which was released in 2012. As well as his … [Read more...]

Love in the no-land space between two cultures: an interview with Zlatko Anguelov

Jasmina Tacheva

Zlatko Anguelov

Jasmina Tacheva talks with Bulgarian-American author Zlatko Anguelov about his newest book, Erotic Memories (2012), and the ideas of love, devotion, harmony and memory on the border between two … [Read more...]

Terrence Malick, Badlands and Caril Fugate: An Interview

Paul Maher Jr.

caril ann fugate

Photos courtesy of Jeff McArthur (All Rights Reserved) Jeff McArthur is the author of Pro Bono: The 18-Year Defense of Caril Fugate. Mr. McArthur’s grandfather, John C. McArthur, defended Caril … [Read more...]

An Interview with Poet Jack Leaf Willetts

Denise Enck and Jack Leaf Willetts

Jack, your new poetry collection, The Beauty of being Hated, has just been published. What can you tell us about it? It was hard to live and hard to write. It was written out of a series of … [Read more...]

“The Old Maestro”: an interview with Kerouac friend Henri Cru by Dave Moore

Dave Moore

Henri Cru in Greenwich Village, 1987. Photo courtesy of Henri Cru.

Henri Cru was one of the friends that Jack Kerouac met at Horace Mann School, New York, in 1939. Their friendship sustained for many years, and Cru featured as a character in several of Kerouac's … [Read more...]

Kerouac — “My really best friend…” an interview with Seymour Wyse by Dave Moore

Dave Moore

Seymour Wyse, Horace Mann School, 1940, courtesy of Dave Moore

Seymour Michael Wyse was one of Jack Kerouac's closest friends. An Englishman, educated at Charterhouse School, Wyse met Kerouac when they both attended Horace Mann School, New York, in 1939. They … [Read more...]

The Teducated Mouth: John Barbato interviews Ted Joans

Ted Joans and John Barbato

ted joans interview teducated

Ted Joans, one of the original Beat poets, was born in Cairo, Illinois on 4 July 1928. By his twenties, living in New York City, he moved in the surrealist world of painters, jazz players, and poets. … [Read more...]

Interview with Kenneth Tindall: From Bellevue to Lynæs. An Interview by Lars Movin

Kenneth Tindall

Kenneth Tindall - Great Heads

(First published in "Maskinfabrikken," Copenhagen) Kenneth Tindall (b. 1937) is a well-kept literary secret. He first appeared in 1967 with Vindharpen, a novel about Copenhagen in the sixties, … [Read more...]

An Interview with David Amram: By Your Works Ye Shall Be Known

Ed Heflin and David Amram

David Amram, Ed Heflin & Joe Kerouac. © Ed Heflin, 2003

A friend of mine is so artistically fascinating and creative that labeling him "eclectic" or "multi-faceted" understates his cultural contributions. Full of life, he incessantly looks for beauty in … [Read more...]

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R.I.P. Michael McClure 1932-2020

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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Recent features

  • My Father’s Map
  • On Waiting
  • Seeing Las Meninas in Madrid, 1994
  • Visual poems from 23 Bodhisattvas by Chris Stephenson
  • Historical Punctum: Reading Natasha Trethewey’s Bellocq’s Ophelia and Native Guard Through the Lens of Roland Barthes’s Camera Lucida
  • Panic In The Rear-View Mirror: Exploring The Work of Richard Siken and Ann Gale
  • “Art has side effects,” I said.

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