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

IF by Rudyard Kipling

The Middle Word in Life: Dennis Hopper and Rudyard Kipling’s “If”

Stephen Lee Naish

Endgame collage - Denise Enck

Endgame (May you live in interesting times – Chinese Curse)

Bobbi Lurie

More Essays and Interviews

Poetry

Padden mist / credit: em

Two poems by Faizan Syed

Faizan Syed

Coulee City Blue - D. Enck

Poems by Niko Nelson

Niko Nelson

More Poetry

Beat Generation

On the Road illustartion copyright Paul Rogers

David Handley interviews Paul Rogers about his work & the On the Road illustrations

David Handley

alan ansen 1973

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

Denise Enck

The Intersection of Buddhism and the Beat Generation

The Intersection of Buddhism and the Beat Generation

Sean Negus

Pete Winslow - Surrealist / Beat Poet

Pete Winslow, Beat/Surrealist Poet

Denise Enck

More About the Beat Generation

Visual Art

Renunication, Mixed media on paper, 22x32, 2006

Meditations: Paintings by Kurt Rostek

Kurt Rostek

Detail from Servant Suburbia by Joe Castro

13 Collages by Joe Castro

Joe Castro

More Art

Essays

Cowboy

El Condor Pasa

Sarah Glady

daydream on the forest pond / credit: de

The Pointless Forest

Emily O'Neill

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