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

L - art by D. Enck

“I am a deserter” — Marcel Duchamp

Bobbi Lurie

Susan Howe / Federalist 10 essay

Susan Howe’s Federalist 10: a literary approach to colonial America

Leticia del Toro

More Essays and Interviews

Poetry

Addisonia / 1902

Three poems by Elizabeth Threadgill

Elizabeth Threadgill

southbound / credit: em

Five poems on the Beat Generation

Alan Catlin

More Poetry

Beat Generation

JK - Jack Kerouac typewriter

October Ghost

Ashley Shelby

Kerouac: Avatar for American Buddhism by Michael Amundsen

Jack Kerouac: Avatar of American Buddhism

Michael Amundsen

Ted Joans Lives! Tribute (10)

Empty Mirror

city lights books

A.D. Winans on A.D. Winans

A.D. Winans

More About the Beat Generation

Visual Art

Dietrich's Mirror 7 (detail) - Kalliope Amorphous

Dietrich’s Mirror: Portraits In The Mirrors Of Marlene Dietrich

Kalliope Amorphous

Patient Clouds - BIll Wolak

Collages by Bill Wolak

Bill Wolak

More Art

Essays

Candy Darling on her Deathbed by Peter Hujar, used as cover photo for I Am a Bird Now / fair use

Candy Says, by Kaiya Gordon

Kaiya Gordon

Dearly Beloved - Nanette Jordan

Dearly Beloved, Part I: Growing up in 1950s San Francisco

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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