Issue #8 Contributors

JC Alfier • Mileva Anistasiadou • Berin Aptoula • X.C. Atkins • Pam Avoledo • Sammy Bellin • Terry Brinkman • Peter Bullen • Sam Casey • Sam Cavnar-Johnson • Angel Cetorelli • Michael J. Clark • John Cohle • Chris Cooper • Craig Cotter • Tinamarie Cox • Sarah Das Gupta • Geoffrey Detrani • Marco Etheridge • Melissa Feuerstein • Tim Frank • Riam Griswold • Ken Haas • Alan Hardy • Jer Hayes • Scott Holstad • Jonathan Humble • Erin Jamieson • Beth Kephart • Craig Kirchner • Josiane Kouagheu • Stephen Leach • Edward Lee • Rowan MacDonald • Sia Mehta • Marc Meierkort • Mike Meltone • Justine Nicholes • Tamara Pantović • Rissa Pappas • Timothy Pilgrim • John RC Potter • Diana Raab • Fred Ragsdale • Samantha Ratcliffe • Thomas Riesner • Layla Sabourian-Tarwe • Gerard Sarnat • Brandon Shane • Topher Shields • Amy Shore • Michael T. Smith • Scott Taylor • Foy Timms • Douglas Twells • Vantage • Pradeep R. Varadwaj • Philip Venzke • Tamizh Ponni VP • Flo Ward • Ernest Williamson III • Corey J. Willis • Hayden Winston • Michael Worthington • Tetiana Yatsechko-Blazhenko • Jeffrey Zable • Saba Zahoor

Issue #8 of The Argyle Is Here!!!

All new poetry, fiction, CNF, and digital art, so dive in and enjoy!!!

Follow us on X, Instagram, Bluesky, and Facebook for news and updates!!!

Issue #9, *The Argyle*’s last issue, will drop on 9/25/26 @ 6 PM CST!!!

***Pardon us for the delay…and the eventual closure***

Theme 08: “Bright Lights, Dark City, Part Deux”

Now that we have had a taste of the rural life (Theme 06: “Bucolia”) and a bite of the big city (Theme 07: “Bright Lights, Dark City”, The Argyle is going to stay a while as we have had a large number of responses to our call for Theme 07. We will continue our theme into Issue No. #9, offering our readers a “Part Deux.” So, we will accept submissions of poetry, fiction, CNF, and digital art that center around urban life with all its glamors and all its pitfalls.

We want front row seats for the “rat race.” Accounts from casualties of urban sprawl. Mainly, though, we want glimpses of life underground that are strange enough to be true, which could inlcude (but are not limited to) existential crises in art galleries, the plight of sex dungeons during a nationwide bleach shortage, street vendors with questionably sourced ingredients, street prophets that can actually predict the future, socialites who run illegal cockfights in their poolhouses, and desperate writers that sell their souls to the devil for a spot in the Paris Review.

Give us the real. Give us the absurd. Give us a dazzling—but sobering—look at the dirty underbelly of city life. Above all, your submissions should reflect the humanity beneath it all. The triumphs. The failings. The ongoing struggle for more ____________ (fill in the blank).

Submissions for “Bright Lights, Dark City, Part Deux” must be original pieces (no reprints) and must follow submission guidelines. Subs are now CLOSED.

Spotlight on…

Sneak Peek of Theme 07: “Bright Lights, Dark City”

"Brave New World"

CNF by Sia Mehta
“My father has German blood, did you know? That means I have German blood, too. I hope that the Nazi ghosts won’t tell me where they hid the bones.”
"The Suitcase Project"

Digital Art by Michael Worthington
“The idea with The Suitcase is that sadness is an emotion we experience but try to hide behind a facade.”
"CITY [E]SCAPES"

Poetry by Gerard Sarnat
“poverty porn — / sofa surfing— stale / bread, butter /entire livelihood / in shopping bag — down / to three potatoes a day…”
"Blip's Break"

Fiction by Angel Cetorelli
“He surveyed the creatures flitting around him. Ara, Marcus-with-the-face-tattoo, that girl he used to buy coke from whose name he’d long forgotten, strangers he might never speak a word to or see again but could bare his soul to with the expression on his face and the movement of his body.”
"Vindictive Vines"

Poetry by Sam Casey
“Wine stained lips linger longer on the lovers' / Quarrel as night descends into dusk, / Clarity's tatters dissipating and Passion's poison / Seeping into blood once hot with unbridled love.”
"Each Night Is New Again"

Flash Fiction by Pam Avoledo
“There’s a 24 hour diner open and we slid into the round seats, facing the street. The drag queen, Aurelia Summer, her golden hoop earrings still on, waves at us and drinks her coffee.”
"Neon Saints, K Road"

Poetry by Topher Shields
“A boy leans in a doorway / offering nothing named— / just the pause…”

Theme 07: “Bright Lights, Dark City”

Roam

Issue #8 Highlights

"All on Eight" by Rowan MacDonald (flash fiction)

"Digital Art by Thomas Riesner" (Theme 07: Bright Lights, Dark City)

"Shadowsteps" by JC Alfier (digital art)

"The Dream of a Blind Mole-Rat Draught Excluder" (poetry)

"Memory Guide" by Alan Hardy (Theme 07: Bright Lights, Dark City)

"My Name Is..." by John RC Potter (fiction)

"Frozen Leaves Trapped Beneath the River's Ice" by Sammy Bellin (poetry)

"Between Dialects" by Saba Zahoor (Theme 07: Bright Lights, Dark City)

"Letter to the Gitting Place" by Craig Kirchner (poetry)

"Hypervigilance" by Foy Timms (Theme 07: Bright Lights, Dark City)

"Midterm Matchups" by Corey J. Willis (digital art)

Spotlight on…

Featured Poetry from The Argyle…

“Sleeping Beauty”

by Ken Haas

“She woke. No assist. No strings / attached. Won’t even nap now. / Which has nothing to do with the pea. / Though she’s done with / that nightmare about the frog. “

Read

Note from the EIC

The Argyle will be back soon with Issue No. 9, where we will have some great poetry, fiction, CNF, and digital art for you, as well some additional amazingness on our themed page “Bright Lights, Dark City, Part Deux”. Due to some dealys, however, Issue No. 9 will drop on 9/25 instead of 9/15, so folks will just have to hang in there a little bit longer for their literary fixes, but we think it will be worth the wait.

Even with a new issue to look forward to, we unfortunately do have some disappointing news to share: Issue No. 9 will be The Argyle’s last issue. It is, indeed, with a heavy heart that I share this information as the magazine, its readers, contributors, and editors are so very special to me. Works schedules, professional and creative responsibilites, shifting priorities, and, well, life have been demanding more and more attention, so the time has come to bring things here at The Argyle to a close to keep things moving upward and onward.

Submittable notifications have gone out to all our Issue No. 9 submitters, so if anyone has submitted and is still pending word from us, please check your junk mail, as Submittable messages often end up in there for some reason. For now, I will be stalking our Submittable page for confirmations and updating the site behind the scenes. Issue No. 9, as well as the website, will be available for view online through December 15, 2026. After that date, the website will no longer be active, so dive in and revisit your favorites while you can.

The Argyle had been a dream of mine for a very long time, and I consider myself lucky to have had a chance to head this pretty amazing lit mag for almost three years. Heck! Even a tornado couldn’t keep up down. Still, life continues to happen, and now we prepare ourselves for new opportunities. None of this could have even be possible without the amazing work and dedication of our EDITORS (present and past)!!! With the utmost love and respect, I thank them for their brilliance (I am sure Argyle will to as soon as he stops likcing himself up there, somewhere, in doggie heaven).

Of course, I am thankful most of all to our readers and contributors for all their support over the years through our ups and downs. Thanks for the privilage of allowing us to be a part of your literary lives.

Sincerely,

David Estringel

EIC @ The Argyle Literary Magazine

About The Argyle