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

poet Risa Denenberg and her book, slight faith

A Conversation with Risa Denenberg

Lauren Davis and Risa Denenberg

Is Southern Art a Thing?: Thoughts from a Technically Southern Arts Writer

Sara Estes

More Essays and Interviews

Poetry

riversound (detail) / credit: de

Two poems by Emily Vizzo

Emily Vizzo

Current

birthday by William Bortz

William Bortz

More Poetry

Beat Generation

How Hip Was My Alley by Kenton Crowther

Review – Alleycats and Beatsters: The Hip, the Gone, and the Way Gone

Denise Enck

The Creative Birth of Jack Kerouac

Jack Kerouac’s Creative Birth

Paul Maher Jr.

Seymour Wyse, Horace Mann School, 1940, courtesy of Dave Moore

Kerouac — “My really best friend…” an interview with Seymour Wyse by Dave Moore

Dave Moore

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

Junk Nightmares

Lee Watkins

More About the Beat Generation

Visual Art

borders (detail) by Chris Turnbull

borders

Chris Turnbull

Kombination 3 (detail) by Kon Markogiannis

Kombinations: Four collages by Kon Markogiannis

Kon Markogiannis

More Art

Essays

Bellingham, WA sunset -- Boulevard Park

Spring in Cascadia

David Marshall

Photo by Jesper Aggergaard on Unsplash

Deadlift, by Cindy Bradley

Cindy Bradley

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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