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Clara B. Jones interviews poet Reuben Jackson

Clara B. Jones

Scattered Clouds: New and Selected Poems by Reuben Jackson

Each month I attend a poetry reading at Zed's Cafe in Silver Spring, MD. Reuben Jackson, poet, jazz scholar, educator, and archivist, was the featured speaker on October 4th and, before he had … [Read more...]

My Coleridge: On Five Poems by Sara Coleridge

Stephanie Limb

Sara Coleridge

‘Passion is blind not love: her wondrous might’ Passion is blind not Love: her wondrous might Informs with three-fold pow’r man’s inward sight: – To her deep glance the soul at large … [Read more...]

Poetry as a Last Letter: Thomas James and his Influences Sylvia Plath and Georg Trakl

Lauren Davis

Poetry as a Last Letter: Thomas James and his Influences Sylvia Plath and Georg Trakl by Lauren Davis

Buried in Joliet, Illinois, lies Thomas Edward Bojeski. He died young at the age of twenty-seven on January 7, 1974. The public and his family disagree on the cause. One says murder. The other says … [Read more...]

Richard’s Coat: Remembering Richard Irwin

Rebecca LaFontaine-Larivee

Rebecca LaFontaine-Larivee - Richard's Coat: Remembering Richard Irwin

Richard’s Coat… went into the cardboard box with all the other things for the thrift store: an orange radio with a broken antenna, a vintage purse that was only in fashion in San Francisco’s … [Read more...]

An interview with Richard Kigel, author of Heav’nly Tidings From the Afric Muse: The Grace and Genius of Phillis Wheatley

Richard Kigel and Denise Enck

Phillis Wheatley Biography - Richard Kigel

Richard Kigel is a historian and educator with an interest in 18th and 19th-century American history. His first book, Becoming Abraham Lincoln: The Coming of Age of Our Greatest President, recounts … [Read more...]

Secret of the Masters: An Interview with Poet Edward Field

James Schwartz

Edward Field and partner Neil

This interview was conducted in September 2016 and first published, along with the poem "Secret of the Masters," the next month in the now-defunct Eris Magazine. The poem "Doggy Love" is published … [Read more...]

Remembering Federico García Lorca

Steve Pelletier

federico garcia lorca

Ask for lights and bells. / Learn to cross your hands, / to taste the cold air / of metals and of cliffs. A Spanish poet and playwright associated with avant-garde surrealism, Federico García Lorca … [Read more...]

A.D. Winans Remembers Bob Kaufman

A.D. Winans

AD Winans remembers Bob Kaufman

Bob Kaufman, known in France as the American Rimbaud, was one of the original Beat poets to come out of the Fifties. He is rightfully regarded as one of the most influential black poets of his era, … [Read more...]

Remembering poet David Gitin

Sam Vinicur

Gloria Avner and David Gitin

It is with a numbed sense of great personal loss that I report the passing on June 27th of David Gitin: poet, educator, and polymath. As Gloria Avner lovingly phrased it (his long-lost teenage … [Read more...]

Remembering Ronnie Burk

Empty Mirror News

Ronnie Burk

Ronnie Burk, poet and activist, Surrealist and Buddhist, would have been 60 today on April 1, 2015! Celebrate him with a remembrance post at ACT UP Archives filled with photos and collages. Feel free … [Read more...]

Yannis Livadas: A double interview

Yannis Livadas

Yannis Livadas double interview

These interviews were conducted for Quorum Magazine, which is based in Croatia. This is their first appearance in English. Interview No. 1 Tomica Bajsic interviewed the poet Yannis Livadas for … [Read more...]

For David Moe

A.D. Winans

skagit river

Like a crow caws into the night, like an owl with its questioning eyes, like a Shaman lights the night with magic words, like a hawk circles the sky, like a farmer plants seeds, like a … [Read more...]

In honor of ruth weiss on her 85th birthday

Horst Spandler, A.D. Winans, Bob Booker and Neeli Cherkovski

Ruth Weiss / copyright Horst Spandler

The following is from: “ruth weiss and the American Beat movement of the ‘50s and 60’s” by Horst Spandler, published in: ruth weiss, no dancing aloud – lautes tanzen nicht erlaubt. edition exil, … [Read more...]

Remembering Poet Kirby Doyle

Michael McClure and Peter Coyote

Kirby Doyle poet

Kirby Doyle & the Snows of Yesteryear by Michael McClure In 1958 Kirby Doyle's menage on Sacramento Street, in a basement apartment of the no-man's land between the wealthy on the Hill and the … [Read more...]

A.D. Winans on A.D. Winans

A.D. Winans

city lights books

I was born in San Francisco, and have lived here almost my entire life. I was born at home, premature. My mother said the doctor told her I would not live a long life. Now I'm 71 and the doctor is … [Read more...]

Remembering poet Lawrence McGaugh

Denise Enck

Bay Area poet Lawrence McGaugh (October 11, 1940-July 26, 2006) was the author of "A Fifth Sunday" and several other volumes of poetry. His work was also published in literary periodicals and … [Read more...]

Remembering poet Howard Hart

various contributors

Howard Hart and Raymond Foye, by T. Walden

SOME LINES FOR YOUWRITTEN UNDER A REDWOOD IN THE CITY PARKNOT YET THREE MONTHS SINCE YOU DIED IN MY ARMSIN OUR HOME ON CHESTNUT STREET, SAN FRANCISCO Drawn to the Temple where you worshipped I slink … [Read more...]

A. D. Winans Looks Back at the Beat Generation

A.D. Winans

City Lights Bookstore window

Generally speaking, counter-culture describes the values and norms of behavior of a cultural group or subculture in conflict with those of the cultural mainstream of the day, a visible phenomenon that … [Read more...]

A.D. Winans Remembers Jack Micheline

A.D. Winans

A.D. Winans & Jack Micheline in 1996

Jack Micheline, a poet of the Beat Generation, died of a heart attack on Friday, February 27, 1988 aboard a Bart commuter train. The transit police at the Orinda Bart station discovered his body, … [Read more...]

In Memory of Poet Alan Ansen: Biography, Books & Links

Denise Enck

alan ansen 1973

Alan Ansen passed away in Athens, Grece on November 12, 2006. A poet, playwright, and author, he was associated with both the Beat Generation & New York poets. Ansen served as secretary to W.H. … [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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