“Bass Pro Shop” by Kendah Ballout
Welcome to mojo21, the 21st volume of the Mikrokosmos Literary Journal’s online edition. With this volume, we have an eclectic collection of staggering works. From stories of temptation to poems which celebrate death to art of bait shop pyramids, our authors, poets, and artists have opened their hearts and minds and invited us in. While Mikrokosmos celebrates the creativity of Wichita State University alumni, mojo is a spyglass across borders, coasts, and continents. Thank you to all of our contributors and thank you to our readers. Please enjoy.
| Fiction | Poetry | Art |
| It’s in the Constitution by Steven Roiphe | Omega by Ronald Zack | Bass Pro Shop by Kendah Ballout |
| The Man on the Bench by Tony Concannon | Saratoga by Erin Matheson Ritchie | Quaking Aspens by Michael Shoemaker |
| wen cousin who stay visiting from the mainland wants a papaya by Melissa Llanes Brownlee | Raptured by GTimothy Gordon | Decision Making by Farnaz Ferdows |
| Frozen River by Mary Durocher | Grief by Ian Parker | Fingerprint by Farnaz Ferdows |
| The Devil’s Pump by Jake La Botz | A Question For The Author by Mackenzie Kae | Hot Pursuit by John Jackson |
| Octagonal by Alison Ruth | Plentitude by Marie-Andee Auclair | Tolerant by Michael Moreth |
| A Dragonfly is a Predator by Hana Damon-Tollenaere | Illuminated Descent by John Jackson | |
| For Gladwyn Turbutt, who took me to Crécy by E.G.N Lafleur | Unshakable by Michael Moreth | |
| Dream of Vermeer by GTimothy Gordon | Sign and Cosign by Edward Supranowicz | |
| Psalm For The Future by Mackenzie Kae | ||
| Myth by Meagan Chandler |
Contributors
Fiction
Tony Concannon grew up in Massachusetts. After graduating from college with a degree in English and American Literature, he taught in Japan, where several of his stories are set. He began writing in 1979 and his work has appeared in Columbia Journal, On the Premises, Litro, and Thema.
Mary Durocher
Jake La Botz’s songs and acting have been featured in film and television, including True Detective, Ghost World, Rambo (yes, Rambo!) and more. His debut collection of short fiction is forthcoming from the University of Wisconsin’s Cornerstone Press. A full list of publications available at: www.jakelabotz.com/fiction
Melissa Llanes Brownlee (she/her), a native Hawaiian writer living in Japan, has work published and forthcoming in Quarterly West, Wigleaf, The Threepenny Review, Matchbook, Bluestem and Cutleaf Journal, and honored in Best Small Fictions, Best Microfiction, and Wigleaf Top 50. Read Hard Skin (2022) and Kahi and Lua (2022) and look out for Bitter over Sweet (2025) from Santa Fe Writers Project. She tweets @lumchanmfa and talks story at melissallanesbrownlee.com
Steven Roiphe holds a degree from Harvard University, and Summer Literary Seminars awarded him two tuition fellowships. He has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and his work has appeared in HOT METAL BRIDGE, THE HAMILTON STONE REVIEW, SERVING HOUSE JOURNAL, ARCADIA’s ONLINE SUNDRIES, and COLUMBIA JOURNAL online. He lives in Downeast Maine, where he’s recently finished writing a novel that follows a rogue deity’s quest to spark social justice down through American history.
Alison Ruth’s short stories have been nominated three times for the Pushcart Prize and have been published in CutBank, Confrontation, Chagrin River Review, Curbside Splendor, J Journal, Southern Indiana Review, G.W. Review, Kestrel, Pamplemousse, and Tulane Literary Magazine. Her first novel, Near-Mint Cinderella, also nominated for the Pushcart Prize, was published by Aqueous Books in 2014, and my second novel, Starlight Black and the Misfortune Society, was published by Prizm Books in 2015.
Poetry
Marie-Andree Auclair’s second chapbook, Skipping Stones, written with poet Adrienne Stevenson, was published in 2024 by Bumble Puppy Press. Her poems have also appeared in many print and online publications, such as Bywords,ca (Canada); Sierra Nevada Review (US); Shot Glass Journal (US); Nod Magazine (Canada); Voices de la Luna (US); The Frogmore Papers (UK); Tokyo Poetry Journal (Japan). She enjoys writing (of course), photography, traveling and adding to her cooking repertoire after each trip.
Meagan Chandler holds a bachelor’s degree in creative writing from Baldwin Wallace University. She currently attends the Poetry MFA program at Bowling Green University. Her works have been published or are forthcoming in Door is a Jar, Inscape, The Shore, The Ekphrastic Review, and Allium, A Journal of Poetry & Prose. She placed as a finalist and runner-up in the 2023 competitions for the Hollin’s University Literary Festival.
Hana Damon-Tollenaere is a biology student and occasional writer. She lives by the beach with her girlfriend and a variety of reptiles and amphibians. Her published work can be found at hanadamontollenaere.carrd.co
Gordon divides lives between New Mexico/Texas borderland Chihuahuan Desert Southwest Organ Mountains and Asia.
DREAM WIND was published 2020 (Spirit-of-the-Ram), GROUND OF THIS BLUE EARTH (Mellen), while EVERYTHING SPEAKING CHINESE was awarded RIVERSTONE Poetry Prize (AZ). Work appears in AGNI, American Literary R, Cincinnati PR, Mississippi R, New York Q, RHINO, Sonora R, Texas Observer, several nominated for Pushcarts and Best of the Net. EMPTY was published January 2024 (Cyberwit), BLUE BUSINESS acceptance (Cyberwit/Fall-Winter 2024/-25.) (61)
Mackenzie Kae is a poet living in Owensboro, Kentucky. She enjoys caring for rambunctious beings and floating through fantasies. Her work has appeared in Last Leaves Magazine and Molecule.
E.G.N. Lafleur is a poet, essayist, and postulant for priesthood in the Anglican Church of Canada. She has poetry in Feed Lit Mag, Pinhole Poetry, Wrongdoing, Deathcap, Sage Cigarettes, Psaltery and Lyre, The Wasteland; and essays in Earth & Altar and forthcoming in The Hour and Monk Arts. She writes on the cultural history of queerness and the Roman Catholic Church, camp, liberation, and reproductive justice. You can find her on X @egnlafleur and her essays on Substack at egnlafleur.substack.com or egnlafleur.com. Her debut chapbook, THE MAGI COME TO TORONTO, is available now from Kith Books.
Ian Parker is a poet and musician living in Portland, Oregon. He has been previously published by orangepeel literary magazine, infinite scroll, Literary Forest Poetry Journal, and wildscape. literary journal.
Erin Matheson Ritchie lives in California with her spouse and pet rabbit. She earned her master’s degree in education at Stanford University and taught secondary English for seven years. Her poems appear in New Feathers Anthology, Cosmic Daffodil, and Dog Teeth
Ronald Zack is a poet in Tucson Arizona. His work has recently appeared or is forthcoming in Main Street Rag, Beyond Words Literary Magazine, Poetry Breakfast, Rat’s Ass Review, Ekphrastic Review, and others. He is studying poetry in the MFA in Creative Writing program at Mississippi University for Women.
Art
Kendah Ballout can’t escape the ugliness of class society, no matter how unplugged she is. It’s offline, too.
Farnaz Ferdows is from Iran. He does not have an artistic background; instead, he practiced law in Iran. This year, he was accepted to study Psychology at Wichita State University. He has always been deeply interested in human behavior, both social and individual, and has long desired to study this field. Recently, he has begun to express his thoughts and concerns through digital drawing and painting. This collection, consisting of five images titled “Elections,” has been submitted to Mikrokosmos journal. In his view, elections are not just about choosing a president; they encompass all the choices we make throughout our lives, each one akin to a fingerprint that remains with us forever.
John M. Jackson is a concept artist and game developer currently studying at Wichita State University. His passion for art first sparked when he received a drawing tablet for his 13th birthday, and he’s been working to improve his craft in the seven years since then. Primarily working in the digital medium, his work explores the persistence of camaraderie in extraordinary circumstances. His primary inspiration comes from running and playing table-top role playing games such as Mauritter, Pathfinder, and Dungeons & Dragons.
Michael Moreth is a recovering Chicagoan living in the rural, micropolitan City of Sterling, the Paris of Northwest Illinois.
Michael Shoemaker is a poet, photographer, editor and writer from Magna, Utah. He is the author of a poetry/photography collection Rocky Mountain Reflections and Grasshoppers in the Field. His photography has appeared in Writers on the Range, Sea to Sky Review, the Denver Post, the Salt Lake Tribune, Yahoo.com and elsewhere. He lives in Magna, Utah with his wife and son where he enjoys looking out on the Great Salt Lake every day. His online photography portfolio is at https://michaelshoemaker.crevado.com/. Michael has been nominated for the Best of the Net anthology in 2025 for his photograph “Flashflood Waterfall”.Edward Michael Supranowicz is the grandson of Irish and Russian-Ukrainian immigrants. He grew up on a small farm in Appalachia. He has a grad background in painting and printmaking. Some of his artwork has recently or will soon appear in Fish Food, Streetlight, Another Chicago Magazine, Door Is A Jar, The Phoenix, and The Harvard Advocate. Edward is also a published poet.