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

Pablo Neruda and the Virtues of Laziness by Joseph Rodgers

Pablo Neruda and the Virtues of Laziness

Joseph Rodgers

Jorge Luis Borges - This Craft of Verse

A Consideration of Borges’ Poetics

Michael Julian

More Essays and Interviews

Poetry

Poetry by Line Toftsø

Line Toftsø

BOB KAUFMAN poet of ecstatic litany by Matt Hill

Matt Hill

More Poetry

Beat Generation

Elegy For My Beat Generation - poetry by Neeli Cherkovski

Neeli Cherkovski’s Elegy For My Beat Generation, reviewed by Yannis Livadas

Yannis Livadas

A Coney Island of the Mind: Poems by Lawrence Ferlinghetti

A Coney Island of the Mind by Lawrence Ferlinghetti

Eric D. Lehman

William Burroughs, portrait by Graziano Origa, pen & ink, 1997

Junk Nightmares

Lee Watkins

Last Words: The Final Journals of William S. Burroughs

Love and the Titanic: Notes on Last Words: The Final Journals of William Burroughs

Lee Watkins

More About the Beat Generation

Visual Art

toriot 14 (detail - paul hawkins

toriot: text art by paul hawkins

Paul Hawkins

Scraps 2 (detail) by Fabio Sassi

Scraps by Fabio Sassi

Fabio Sassi

More Art

Essays

the skagit trail / credit: em

Convergence

Etan Nechin

Lexington Avenue by Jeffrey Zeldman

Lexington Avenue

Buku Sarkar

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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