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

Wordworth & Kerouac

Wordsworth and the Beats: The Longevity of Influence

William R. Soldan

journal

Attempt to Hear All the Voices: On the Nature of Essay

Shannon Berg

More Essays and Interviews

Poetry

riversound (detail) / credit: de

Two poems by Emily Vizzo

Emily Vizzo

isfahan-bridge CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=657963

Poems of Place

Rebecca Gould

More Poetry

Beat Generation

Kill Your Darlings Movie Trailer

Beat Generation film – Kill Your Darlings trailer released!

Empty Mirror News

The Haunted Life and Other Writings by Jack Kerouac

Kerouac Before the Jazz: a review of “The Haunted Life”

Jim Cherry

Some Kind of Dharma 1 (detail) - Steve Paul

Some Kind of Dharma: Photographs

Steve Paul

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

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

Dave Moore

More About the Beat Generation

Visual Art

EC Brown Anomalies Shop Detail 6

Standing room only: Inside the workshop of E.C. Brown Anomalies

Ephraim C. Brown

Lauralee Sikorski

Almost There: Paintings by Lauralee Sikorski

Lauralee Sikorski

More Art

Essays

animals, seven days old

Animals, Seven Days Old

Lake Vargas

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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