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TrashWorks: Collages from beachtrash and vintage magazines

Elza Zijlstra

Room of a Writer - Elza Zijlstra

Artist's Statement: I make collages of beachtrash and vintage magazines. It started during a peaceful moment at a trashy Spanish beach where I put, without thought, some pieces of plastic together. … [Read more...]

The Invitation of the Mirror: Jonathan Lethem & Me, from the Margin to the Mainstream

Jasun Horsley

Words and images by Jasun Horsley I recently had a podcast discussion with the author Jonathan Lethem. This connection has probably meant more to me than previous connections. For one thing, it’s … [Read more...]

Jack Kerouac’s “Strange Cemetery in Jamaica”

Paul Maher Jr.

--- from a work-in-progress, I, Duluoz!: An Appreciation of Jack Kerouac If I had to pick my favorite poem of Jack Kerouacʼs, it would be “Strange Cemetery in Jamaica” published in Some of the … [Read more...]

Dennis Hopper as Daniel Morgan in Mad Dog Morgan

Stephen Lee Naish

Dennis Hopper as Daniel Morgan

The film Easy Rider (1969) made its director and star Dennis Hopper, and the film's producer and co-star Peter Fonda, counter-cultural icons of the late 1960s. The film's minuscule budget, roaring box … [Read more...]

Three poems by P R Kargaard

P R Kargaard

Smooth / Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rickkennedy/3184235988/ electronavalanche

False Bay, San Juan Island In the autumn morning, the high thirds of the trees I know have vanished. Obscured by a sleepy fog. It is a way of being in pearl which seeps like a surface … [Read more...]

Music Review – An Evening With Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer

Richard Marcus

Amanda Palmer and Neil Gaiman

There have been many great artistic couples down through the ages. Now a days there seems to be more celebrity couplings than any real co-joining of artistic talents. So when I first began to hear … [Read more...]

How to write an excellent book review query

Empty Mirror

Skiing in Interzone - a fictitious book

So, your book is finished and you need to get the word out. You've found some book reviewers who you'd like to email. You're hoping they'll accept a copy of your book for possible review. But … [Read more...]

The Naked Beat

Todd Clouser

The Love Electric

The Love Electric's new video was filmed in New York City, Lisbon, Berlin, and Woodstock. You can get "The Naked Beat" here. About A Love Electric The Love Electric is a band that does … [Read more...]

Post-Zen, a reflection for Reilly

Jennifer White

collage copyright D. Raphael

When you were put away your car had a half a tank of gas. This surprised me, because I had only ever seen you put five dollars in at a time. While you drove I would watch the dial on the odometer … [Read more...]

10 public speaking tips for writers

Tom Milton

Public Speaking for Writers

Writers often work in solitude. But when it's time to do a reading or a book signing, or to give a presentation or speech, you're no longer in your own environment, and the nerves can really kick in! … [Read more...]

Photography: Verboten by Samy Sfoggia

Samy Sfoggia

Verboten by Samy Sfoggia

The photographic series titled Verboten (“Prohibited”) is focused on characters that usually are called "outsiders". Verboten consists of staged photographs that are based on 1920s criminal mugshots. … [Read more...]

I Am San Francisco

A.D. Winans

A.D. Winans & Jack Micheline in 1996

  I have witnessed the waterfront decay the ships disappear the piers given over to tourists and sunbathing sea lions Gone the Haight Theater in the old Haight Ashbury where as a kid I … [Read more...]

On Being Corso’s Lover

Jacqueline Kirkpatrick

On Being Corso's Lover by Jacqueline Kirkpatrick

In the Cadillac of my imagination unraveling in Corso's kitchen we eat verses of Homer for lunch. He becomes my Odysseus. My fingers are burnt and veins tapped. Our highs grow weary as we … [Read more...]

Insomniacs: Photography by Fabio Sassi

Fabio Sassi

Insomniac 3 - Fine art photography by Fabio Sassi

… [Read more...]

A Curious Stew

Teresa Conboy

Los Angeles, copyright Aculine http://www.sxc.hu/profile/aculine

Silver Lake was a circus when I moved here in ‘92.  By day it was old buildings with peeling paint set against lush hillsides with hidden graffitied cement stairways and morning glories everywhere. … [Read more...]

Rik Lina Painting a Leporello

Rik Lina

Rik Lina - Leporello

Watch Rik Lina paint a leporello (folding book) in this new video: Here's the result: … [Read more...]

Two poems by Benjamin Smith

Benjamin Smith

image by dlritter / http://www.sxc.hu/photo/478660 / altered by empty mirror

Pink Shots. The needle drops, wails Gin and trombones While Erikson plays dice In the mirror and Lucy downs Pink shots of poetry. By 5am we are beasts, Animals on hands and Knees, lapping … [Read more...]

How to Identify a First Edition Book

Denise Enck

This page has lots of information on it! Here are some quick links to the most important topics. General guidelines for identifying a first edition Identifying 1st editions from specific … [Read more...]

Charged Vision: The Photographs of Allen Ginsberg

Corey Wade

Jack Kerouac by Allen Ginsberg

The photographs of Allen Ginsberg recently were on display at the Jewish Contemporary Museum in San Francisco. Walking through the museum is like going on a jaunt through Beat History. A spritely Jack … [Read more...]

John J. Dorfner on Jack Kerouac’s Induction into the Rocky Mount Hall of Fame

John J. Dorfner and Denise Enck

Jack Kerouac Rocky Mount Hall of Fame Potrtrait - inducted by John J. Dorfner

John J. Dorfner is the author of two books on Jack Kerouac, Kerouac: Visions of Lowell and Kerouac: Visions of Rocky Mount. In them, he delves into Kerouac's life in Lowell, Massachusetts, and in … [Read more...]

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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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Recent features

  • My Father’s Map
  • On Waiting
  • Seeing Las Meninas in Madrid, 1994
  • Visual poems from 23 Bodhisattvas by Chris Stephenson
  • Historical Punctum: Reading Natasha Trethewey’s Bellocq’s Ophelia and Native Guard Through the Lens of Roland Barthes’s Camera Lucida
  • Panic In The Rear-View Mirror: Exploring The Work of Richard Siken and Ann Gale
  • “Art has side effects,” I said.

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