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

Faust (detail) - public domain

The Necessity of Tragedy—How What Goethe Played with is Still Entirely Relevant

Marina Manoukian

A Wreath for William H. Gass by Alex Lanz

A Wreath for William H. Gass

Alex Lanz

More Essays and Interviews

Poetry

image credit: em

Three poems by Erin Russell

Erin Russell

BOB KAUFMAN poet of ecstatic litany by Matt Hill

Matt Hill

More Poetry

Beat Generation

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

Junk Nightmares

Lee Watkins

The Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac

The Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac, reviewed by Eric D. Lehman

Eric D. Lehman

Gregory Corso mug shot -- prison

Poetic Licence: The Crime and Hard Time of Gregory Corso, or A Portrait of the Poet as a Young Felon

Gregory Stephenson

A.D. Winans & Jack Micheline in 1996

A.D. Winans Remembers Jack Micheline

A.D. Winans

More About the Beat Generation

Visual Art

Vacancy - JC Olsthoorn

Land O’ Lakes: Highway 7 photographs

JC Olsthoorn

Panic In The Rear-View Mirror: Exploring The Work of Richard Siken and Ann Gale

Rhienna Renee Guedry

More Art

Essays

photo credit: Digital Third Eye

From Motown to Mowtown

Andrew Lees

in the window / image by de from photo by milada vigerova

essays in the face of uncertainties

rob mclennan

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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