Empty Mirror

a literary magazine

  • About
    • About Empty Mirror
    • Get in Touch
    • Support EM
    • Colophon
  • Submit
  • Contributors
  • Essays
  • On Literature
  • Poetry
  • Reviews
  • Art
  • Interviews
  • Beat
    • Beat Generation
    • Ted Joans Lives!
  • +
    • Fiction
    • Music & Film
    • News
    • On Writing
    • Book Collecting

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

An interview with author Vanessa Blakeslee

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

Madison Jade and Vanessa Blakeslee

Jean Stafford’s Boston Adventure: Tradition and the Talented Individual by Linda Chown

Jean Stafford’s Boston Adventure: Tradition and the Talented Individual

Linda E. Chown

More Essays and Interviews

Poetry

Photo credit: Joybot / CC BY-SA

Ginsberg at the Grey

Merridawn Duckler

Fairy Poems

Fairy Poems by Laura Madeline Wiseman

Laura Madeline Wiseman

More Poetry

Beat Generation

On the Road - Jack Kerouac

On the Road by Jack Kerouac

Eric D. Lehman

The Creative Birth of Jack Kerouac

Jack Kerouac’s Creative Birth

Paul Maher Jr.

Tangier

My meeting with Paul Bowles in Tangier, 1980

Mark Blickley

Allen Ginsberg - HOWL

The Howl Hat

Jason Stoneking

More About the Beat Generation

Visual Art

splash by JC Olsthoorn

cuba shoreline

JC Olsthoorn

Popcorn Clouds (detail), William Clarkson

Seven Cloud Paintings by William Clarkson

William Clarkson

More Art

Essays

Marlie Centawer - a toast to ti-jean in a liverpool gloom saloon

a toast to ti-jean in a liverpool gloom saloon

Marlie Centawer

credit: Orlova Maria

Food Service, by Caitlin Sellnow

Caitlin Sellnow

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.

Subscribe Submissions Support

There’s more to read!

  • On Literature
  • Beat Generation
  • Visual Art and Visual Poetry
  • Poetry
© 2000–2026 D. Enck / Empty Mirror.
Copyright of all content remains with its authors.
Privacy Policy · Privacy Tools · FTC disclosures