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

Artificial Paradises by Charles Baudelaire

Ten Favorite Books List Contributed by Josechu C.

Top Ten List Contributor

journal

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

Shannon Berg

More Essays and Interviews

Poetry

war flower poem

A poem by Mohammad Afandideh

Mohammad Afandideh

I Kissed You with Sparrows by Serkan Engin / digital collage by D Raphael

I Kissed You with Sparrows

Serkan Engin

More Poetry

Beat Generation

The Haunted Life and Other Writings by Jack Kerouac

Paul Maher Jr. considers Kerouac’s Haunted Life

Paul Maher Jr.

A Coney Island of the Mind: Poems by Lawrence Ferlinghetti

A Coney Island of the Mind by Lawrence Ferlinghetti

Eric D. Lehman

Carl Solomon - Mishaps, Perhaps

Two Songs for Samson: An Invective Poem for Carl Solomon

Gregory Vincent St. Thomasino

Moving Towards the Light: the Triumph of Spirituality in the Poetry of Allen Ginsberg

Moving Towards the Light: The Triumph of Spirituality in the Poetry of Allen Ginsberg

Jessica Clark

More About the Beat Generation

Visual Art

8 new mixed-media pieces by Claudio Parentela

Claudio Parentela

Dream Sequence 2 (detail) - Jonathan K. Rice

Dream Sequences

Jonathan K. Rice

More Art

Essays

Denise Enck

Marshmallow Forest

Melissa Wiley

Marlie Centawer

Subterranean Boy

Marlie Centawer

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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