Empty Mirror

a literary magazine

A Conversation with Poet Meaghan Quinn

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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 we were both working to get our MFAs. To now, years later, hold her book—this stunning baby blue volume loaded with lifegiving verse—is a gift. Rarely do we have a poet who presents … [Read more...]

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

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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 Department of Bulgarian TV from 1967-71; as Chief Editor of Rodna Rech Literary Magazine in 1973; as Chief Editor of Plamak Literary Magazine in 1983, and as Director of the … [Read more...]

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

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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 Dietrich, Greta Garbo, Mae West, and Bette Davis, I also discovered at that time a newer genre of female artists, musicians like Siouxsie Sioux, Kathleen Hanna, PJ Harvey, and Carrie … [Read more...]

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

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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 INDIEFAB Book of the Year Award (Short Story), and the Montaigne Medal, and was a Chicago Tribune "Summer Reads" Pick. Blakeslee's debut novel, Juventud (Curbside Splendor, 2015), was … [Read more...]

Bespoke Books: An interview with Jason Stoneking

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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 wanted to go back in time, to when you started thinking about the Bespoke Project. When was that? What it is that you were looking for? A new form, a new practice, a new context for … [Read more...]

A Conversation with Risa Denenberg

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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 asymmetrical haircut framing her sly smile. I immediately began to follow her work, discovering again and again the words of a woman unafraid to ask the hard questions. I am grateful for the … [Read more...]

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

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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. San Francisco Poet Laureate Devorah Major has published two novels, five books of poetry, numerous essays, and a symphony with Guillermo Galindo--and offers advice for writers … [Read more...]

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

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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 by Pablo Neruda, The Landscape of Castile by Antonio Machado and Between the Floating Mist: Poems of Ryokan. His most recent volume of poetry is Empty Cup, translated into German … [Read more...]

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

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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 Lincoln's early life using firsthand accounts. Kigel's second book, the exhaustively researched biography of African American poet Phillis Wheatley, Heav'nly Tidings from the … [Read more...]

The Drift of Desire: An Interview with 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 Arts degree from Université Paris-VIII in 1991 and 1997 respectively. In 1995, Cho was invited as one of the seven media artists, together with Nam June Paik and Bill Viola, to the … [Read more...]

Secret of the Masters: An Interview with Poet Edward Field

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 here for the first time. The last two poems are excerpted with the poet's permission from After The Fall: Poems Old and New (2007). Edward Field is one of America's greatest poets. … [Read more...]

For Beat’s Sake: 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 Cassady, best known for her relationships with husband Neal Cassady and novelist Jack Kerouac, is an attractive woman with an easy laugh. The fifth child of a Nashville biochemistry … [Read more...]

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

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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 website, Buenos Aires Poetry. In the course of his work he has interviewed many poets including John Ashbery, Dan Fante and Robert Darnton; translated several works into Spanish and … [Read more...]

An interview on Jack Kerouac and 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 professor of English at University of Massachusetts Lowell. The book is a chronological publishing continuum of the first volume and contains the groundbreaking novel Visions of … [Read more...]

Yannis Livadas: A 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 Quorum Magazine, n. 3/4, 2012. Q: During years you have traveled extensively, reading a lot, doing all sorts of jobs. Do you consider traveling and close-range experience a … [Read more...]

Interview – Paul Maher Jr., author of 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 written. Kerouac scholars Paul Maher Jr. (author of Kerouac: His Life and Work; editor Empty Phantoms: Interviews and Encounters with Jack Kerouac) and Stephanie Nikolopoulos bring to … [Read more...]

David Handley’s interview with Author Alex Preston

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 work as a novelist, Preston writes and reviews for a number of publications; The Guardian in England, and a magazine in Greece. The chance to interview one of your favourite … [Read more...]

Terrence Malick, Badlands and Caril Fugate: An Interview

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 Fugate in her trial for her part in the Starkweather murders that occurred in 1959 and would do so for the next eighteen years in her attempts to apply for … [Read more...]

An Interview with Poet Jack Leaf Willetts

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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 negative situations and I was bent on documenting them. I was in a position where I was able to explore the concepts of love and hate and the close connection between these emotions. In … [Read more...]

The Teducated Mouth: John Barbato interviews Ted Joans

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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. If a scene was happening Joans had it covered. A partial list of his friends reads like a who's who of the important creators of the 20th century: Allen Ginsberg, Ella … [Read more...]

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

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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 all that surrounds him. The following is his story, plus an interview I conducted with him prior to his June 4, 2003 appearance in Chicago. We sat down to discuss his life and his … [Read more...]

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Empty Mirror

Established in 2000 and edited by Denise Enck, Empty Mirror is an online literary magazine which publishes new work each Friday.

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