March & April 2026

In Remembrance of Innocents Detained, Disappeared & Murdered under Trump.

From the Publishing-Editor of Hubris: Our second double issue of 2026 opens with  “Upside Down” by Kathryn E. Livingston. Livingston and I met in Teaneck, New Jersey, in the Iyengar Yoga classes of Jay Bolsom. Both of us took to B. K. S. Iyengar’s mode of Yoga body and soul, and Livingston’s most recent book, Yin, Yang, Yogini: A Woman’s Quest for Balance, Strength and Inner Peace, highlights the importance of her practice in a mid-life time when the deaths of parents, the departure of three children for college, and breast cancer (and the resulting panic and anxiety) threatened her native serenity. Now, when we all needs must practice serenity more than ever, the quiet, humble, nurturing, constant, rock-steady, and wry voice of Kathryn E. Livingston is one of my antidotes for the present madness in this country. Playwright Helen Noakes follows, turning to Shakespeare and Seamus Heaney for relief from her own sorrow and rage. And Dean Kalimniou, from Melbourne, Australia, writes of the richly ironic anti-immigrant protests Downunder, where the descendants of Western colonists who supplanted “First Peoples” protest newer arrivals. Then, read a too-brief appreciation of Greek-Australian poet, Dimitris Tsaloumas, by Elizabeth Boleman-Herring, followed by an anecdote from her musical past and three poems by Australian poet Janet Kenny. Poetry Editor Claire Bateman, in this issue, introduces us to the remarkable poetry of Dr. Kendra Y. Henderson, following which, David Havird files a very close reading of poet James Dickey’s “Kudzu.” An update on the subject of Peak Oil comes next from climate scientist Dr. Guy McPherson, an especially important read in light of the imperialist expansion into Venezuela by the Trump “administration.” Naturalist Kevin Van Tighem has sent us a luminous personal essay about his, and our own, relationships with wild animals. Following Kevin comes new(ish) Contributor Daniel J. Dodson, with a thoughtful, and dare I say revolutionary essay on the shadowy, symbolic “horses” which propel our very analog “carts”: read and reflect.  On a light note, always, Wordspinner Skip Eisiminger shares with us an amusing, poignant “Crash Course in Third-World Reality” and Master Gardener Jenks Farmer files a hysterical account of his adventures with home surveillance. The back of Hubris this month is devoted to writing about Greece. First comes a chapter from Greek travel maven Matt Barrett’s misspent (but highly entertaining) youth; then, we close with a column on the Greek Orthodox way of death, by Mykonos resident Stacey Harris-Papaioannou and a photo-essay on Cycladic Sifnos by Elizabeth Boleman-Herring.

Our March/April Home Page Artist, poet Claire Bateman, serves as the longtime Poetry Editor of Hubris. Bateman is the author of The Pillow Museum (FC2), and nine poetry books: Wonders of the Invisible World (42 Miles Books), Scape (New Issues Poetry & Prose), Locals (Serving House Books), Coronology (Etruscan Press), Leap (New Issues), Clumsy (New Issues Poetry & Prose), Friction (Eighth Mountain Poetry Prize), At the Funeral of the Ether (Ninety-Six Press), and The Bicycle Slow Race (Wesleyan University Press). She has been awarded Individual Artist Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Tennessee Arts Commission, and the Surdna Foundation, as well as the New Millennium Writing Award (twice); two Pushcart Prizes, four other Pushcart nominations; the Free State Review Poetry Prize; the Louisiana Literature Poetry Prize; the George Dila Memorial Flash Fiction Contest Prize; and teacher recognition awards from YoungArts (when it was still called the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts) and from Scholastic Arts. She serves as Poetry Editor of Hubris and makes her home in Greenville, South Carolina. (Follow Bateman on social media: on Facebook; Instagram (clairejbateman); X (@clairejbateman); and Bluesky (@clairejbateman.bsky.social).

Words & Wonder

“Upside Down,” By Kathryn E. Livingston

BOGOTA New Jersey—(Hubris)—March/April 2026—The other evening, which now seems like 20 years ago, I was listening to the news when I heard a commentator say that we are in “the upside-down times.” Those words resonated with me for the rest of the week because it seems as though that’s exactly where we are (notwithstanding the term’s connection to Stranger Things, which I’ve never watched). Right is wrong, wrong is right, up is down, down is up, innocent is guilty, guilty is innocent, and if the sky looks blue you will surely be informed that it is orange and you’d better believe it—or else. It’s clear that to some this unhinged reality feels right side up; they celebrate as cruelty replaces compassion, inequality reigns over equality, exclusion axes belonging. (Read more . . .)

Waking Point

“Stilling a Beating Mind,” By Helen Noakes

SAN FRANCISCO California—(Hubris)—March/April 2026—In times of crisis or anxiety, I find myself turning to books, immersing myself in words and ideas to crowd out my own dark thoughts and fears. It’s not by chance that, once again, I’ve reread Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America, to remind myself of what America once was and could be, to wonder at de Tocqueville’s accurate assessment of the mindset of so many in this nation at this time: “There is not, I think, a single country in the civilized world where less attention is paid to philosophy than in the United States.” Americans, de Tocqueville points out, “are universally preoccupied with meeting the body’s every need and attending to life’s little comforts.” I pick up a book of poems by Seamus Heaney, whose work I’ve only recently discovered, and find cold truth in these lines from “The Mud Vision.” (Read more . . .)

Diatribe/North

“MAGA Downunder: Immigration Insecurity & The Perpetual Foreigner,” By Dean Kalimniou

MELBOURNE Australia—(Hubris)—March/April 2026—The recent anti-immigration protests held in Australian cities serve as a troubling reflection of a society grappling with profound insecurity. A confident Australia that once prided itself on dynamism and outward vision appears increasingly to be turning inward, losing its sense of momentum, retreating behind walls of suspicion and recrimination. The disquiet they reveal is neither incidental, nor ephemeral. It speaks to a deeper malaise, a sense that the nation, rather than confronting the complexities of the present with courage and imagination, prefers to seek refuge in exclusionary certainties. Historical precedent is clear. (Read more . . .)

Hapax Legomenon

“Poet Dimitris Tsaloumas’s Unhoped-for Summer,” By Elizabeth Boleman-Herring, Publishing-Editor

PENDLETON South Carolina—(Hubris)—March/April 2026—Even the most vivid events in my past are becoming pixelated, further evidence that some of us sip from the Lethe long before (well, it is to be hoped long before) we press our coins into Charon’s welcoming hand. Preparing to send off to poet Alicia Stallings some slim (usually slim, aren’t they?) volumes of poetry from my dwindling Greek library—which I am doing my level best to bequeath, as I live and breathe, to much younger and able readers—I came upon five books by Greek-Australian poet Dimitris Tsaloumas. The still familiar covers caught me up short and sent my fingers scurrying to Wikipedia: was Tsaloumas still among the living? He was not, alas. I had not thought of him in years, but the painting on the cover of The Observatory took me right back to the Dodecanese, without benefit of analog transport. (Read more . . .)

Singing & Drowning

“The Fortunate Deception,” By Janet Kenny

POINT VERNON Australia—(Hubris)—March/April 2026—I have a song to sing-oh. Boy, do I have a song! I was a young, inadequately prepared singer, fresh from New Zealand and it was the general opinion that I had a rather good voice, which enabled me to hold my own against competition in a foreign climate. I had achieved some small successes and become acquainted with some interesting musicians. The death in 2016 of the great conductor Sir Neville Marriner has caused me to remember my encounter with him. It is at once a sad story and a very funny story. I have preserved my account of events. The experiences surrounding this encounter led to my sad decision to abandon my career as a professional singer. (Read more . . .)

Speculative Friction

“The Poetry of Kendra Hamilton,” By Claire Bateman, Poetry Editor

GREENVILLE South Carolina—(Hubris)—March/April 2026—Over the course of her multifaceted life as a journalist, poet, essayist, and scholar, Dr. Kendra Y. Hamilton has produced, among many other publications, an essential work of Gullah Geechee scholarship, Romancing the Gullah in the Age of Porgy and Bess (University of Georgia Press, 2024) as well as a rollicking journey through a blues landscape, The Goddess of Gumbo: Poems (WordTech Publications LLC, 2006). Hamilton is an interdisciplinary artist who has co-created conceptual art projects for the Spoleto Festival USA; and she is also a Cave Canem Foundation fellow, whose poems and essays have appeared in Callaloo, The Southern Review, Obsidian, and anthologies including Angles of Ascent: A Norton Anthology of Contemporary African American Poetry, Black Nature: Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry, and Shaping Memories: Reflections of 25 African American Women Writers. (Read more . . .)

Close Encounters

“The Freedom to Strike without Warning,” By David Havird

SHREVEPORT Louisiana—(Hubris)—March/April 2026—“Japan invades,” the poem begins. The line continues with a new sentence, which itself begins, “Far Eastern vines,” thereby sandwiching “Japan invades” between the poem’s title, “Kudzu,” and a phrase that not only defines the proper noun but also clarifies the nature of the invasion. But given that the poet, James Dickey, saw action in the Pacific during World War Two, your first thought, which a close reading will mostly verify, is likely to be that here’s a poem from the perspective, maybe, of a young GI (in Dickey’s 1964 collection Helmets—a suggestive title, that) about the war against Japan—that the provocative, two-word declarative sentence at the very beginning isn’t merely a figurative way of describing the proliferation in the poet’s native Georgia, indeed throughout the rural South, of a vine that is native to Japan and boasts a “tremendously fecundating root system.” (Read more . . .)

Planetary Hospice

“Peak Oil: The Numbers Don’t Lie,” By Dr. Guy McPherson

BELLOWS FALLS Vermont—(Hubris)—March/April 2026—If you have followed my website, Nature Bats Last: Our Days Are Numbered/Passionately Pursue a Life of Excellence, for long, you will know that I have tracked “peak oil”—the point when global petroleum production reaches its maximum rate, after which it will begin to decline irreversibly—for a very long time. There are some 200 posts on my site dedicated to the subject, and the concept remains important. According to a report published by the International Energy Agency, global peak oil still matters. In a report published 16 September 2025, the IEA is still ringing the alarm about peak oil. The report is titled Declines in output from existing oil and gas fields have gathered speed, with implications for markets and energy security. (Read more . . .)

While I Draw Breath

“Hanging Out with Wild Things,” By Dr. Kevin Van Tighem

HIGH RIVER, ALBERTA Canada—(Hubris)—March/April 2026―I stopped at Castle Junction one day to break up a long drive, ate my lunch sandwich, and went for a short walk into the woods. The pine trees stood still; there was no wind. Patches of old snow caked the mosses and grasses beneath the trees. I could hear the busy hum of the Trans-Canada Highway across the river, but all was still in the forest. I assumed I was alone. Something flickered between two trees. I stopped to watch. A sharp little face, and then a marten came bounding out into the open. It stared at me, then resumed its random hops, hunting for voles amid the downed logs and frozen vegetation. Its hunt took it in a half-circle around me, barely a couple of paces away, before it veered off into the woods. (Read more . . .)

Signal & Memory

“Stewarding the Future Our Alphabets Outgrow & Outlive,” By Daniel J. Dodson

AUSTIN Texas—(Hubris)—March/April 2026—We are surrounded by ghosts we no longer notice. They live in the walls, the wires, the notations, the interfaces we tap into without thinking. Fire disciplined into furnaces. Wheels made obedient. Agriculture coaxed from wild grass. Sanitation quietly preventing catastrophes no one remembers surviving. The printing press. Electricity. Engines and computers alike—machines that learned to carry intention forward. These achievements are easy to list, easy to celebrate. But they are not the whole story. Because beneath nearly every loud leap lies a quieter one: an architecture of symbols that made the leap possible in the first place. A scaffolding for thought. A way to compress experience, preserve intention, and pass it forward intact enough to be useful. (Read more . . .)

Skip the B.S.

“Crash Course in Third-World Reality,” By Dr. Skip Eisiminger, aka The Wordspinner

CLEMSON South Carolina—(Hubris)—March/April 2026—After arriving early for Wednesday’s “Conversation Partners,” I took a seat and waited for Laura to unlock the door to the library classroom. I’m often early, but why the librarians lock that door is still a mystery—there’s nothing in there but a dusty computer, tables, and chairs. If someone did steal something, he’d have to haul it up four flights of stairs and past a security guard. After my latest conversation, however, I realized that the librarians are quietly “guarding” the stories told in their “parlor”—the place Clemson University’s international students come to practice their English and talk of home. It wasn’t long before Laura showed up with the key and a young man I’d never seen before. From his dress, proud bearing, and skin color, I guessed he was African. (Read more . . .)

Plant People

“Jenks vs Blinkie,” By Jenks Farmer

COLUMBIA South Carolina—(Hubris)—March/April 2026—If Daddy were still around, I wouldn’t even have this thing. But his death led to the utter absurdity of AI attempting “to interpret” the doings at this old farm. There is a definite pattern to technology upgrades around here: In 1750, the house was built; in 1850, a hydraulic ram pump was added to provide running water to the kitchen (Rams are ancient technology, but they weren’t common in America, so whoever came up with this was a visionary.); in 1900, the kitchen was moved indoors and an indoor bathroom was added; in 1940, one electrical outlet and one light bulb were added in most rooms; in 1974, Daddy got a TV and a stereo (but only John Phillips Sousa was allowed); and, in 1976, we got a microwave (Obviously, the pattern accelerated in the 1970s: we were early adopters). (Read more . . .)

Nothing At All to Write Home About

“The Best Summer of My Life,” By Matt Barrett

CARRBORO North Carolina & KEA Greece—(Hubris)—March/April 2026—In February of 1973, my father took our family to the United States embassy in Athens to have our passports renewed. The Greek secretary who processed our forms refused to renew my citizenship. “Your son is no longer an American citizen,” she informed my father. My father raised hell. I was eager to go out to a baseball diamond and prove myself worthy of my American passport, but my father’s towering frame intimidated the secretaries and bureaucrats to the point where they were eager to give me my citizenship back, if only to get rid of us. I proudly accepted my new passport and thought little of the incident. Six months later, I received my induction notice for the Greek Armed Forces. (Read more . . .)

Seaside Scribbles

“No Resting in Peace: Death in Greece,” By Stacey Harris-Papaioannou

MYKONOS Greece—(Hubris)—March/April 2026—Death is tough. In Greece, death has all the intricacies of theatrical tragedy with its rites and rituals, superstitions and dogma, religious doctrine, symbolism and pageantry. Nothing is simple. Nothing is streamlined. Nothing is straightforward. And there is definitely no “resting in peace.” Even the accepted Greek expression offered in bereavement sounds coldly rote—“Eternal be thy memory /Eonia ee mnymi/Αιώνια η μνήμη”—as opposed to the personalized expressions of condolence in Western culture such as, “I’m so sorry for your loss,” “My deepest condolences,” “You have my sincere sympathy,” “Thinking of you during this difficult time,” or “My thoughts and prayers are with you and your family.” (Read more . . .)

Hapax Legomenon at Large

“Our Autumn on Cycladic Sifnos,” By Elizabeth Boleman-Herring, Publishing-Editor

PENDLETON South Carolina—(Hubris)—March/April 2026—Every autumn, given adequate funds and the probability of returning home, in late October, without incident—something very much not in the cards this year, given my birth country’s rapid descent into fascism—our family departs for a month and a half on an island in the Cyclades—every year, a new island, and always one I have not thoroughly explored; an island haunted by none of my personal Lares and Penates. And though, when I recite the names of the larger Cycladic islands, I always “hear” that section (the “Gloria”) from Odysseas Elytis’s great poem, To Axion Esti—specifically as put to music by Mikis Theodorakis, more prosaic is the catalogue as parsed by Wikipedia. (Read more . . .)

Our January/February 2026 Issue

The Hubris Review

“Kevin Van Tighem’s Understory: An Ecologist’s Memoir of Loss & Hope,” By Dr. William Ramp

LETHBRIDGE, ALBERTA Canada—(Hubris)—January/February 2026—Let me first assure you that this did begin as a book review, and that the book concerned isn’t the Bible. But please bear with my opening riff on two topics Kevin Van Tighem treats rather briefly: the Biblical origin story of our species, and the first word in his book’s title. Beware of treating his spare references to them as merely incidental or as unrelated to each other. The first part of the Book of Genesis is a set of interwoven stories. The most important of these to the formation of Christian and post-Christian cultures are those which address three basic narrative themes. (Read more . . .)

Eating Well Is The Best Revenge

“A Summer to Remember,” By Diana Farr Louis

ATHENS Greece—(Hubris)—January/February 2026—As I write this, much of Greece is being drowned by a massive storm called Byron. Warnings beeped loudly on our telephones last night, videos are circulating of cars resembling submarines on flooded streets, schools are closed. Who knows how many lives, human, animal, and vegetable, will be drowned or devastated? To keep warm and dry, I turn my thoughts to this past summer on Andros, a miracle gift from the gods and from friends, not to mention my son Duff, who got us there, and our granddaughter, who came from Germany to help us leave. (Read more . . .)

Waking Point

“Not Just One Person,” By Helen Noakes

SAN FRANCISCO California—(Hubris)—January/February 2026—My first column of the year, after a long silence, won’t be sweet or pretty, for pretty is a weak thing robbed of power by mediocrity, and this is no time for either. It won’t be beautiful either—beauty being the power-laden dynamo that “pretty” aspires to. For what I have to say, to express in hope of being heard, is better said by Elytis, whose power hasn’t dimmed decades after his death: “I dream of revolution against evil and wars . . .” I dream of an awakening that propels us towards humanity rather than fanatical pursuits driven by greed, malice, and hunger for retribution. (Read more . . .)

Words & Wonder

“Media . . . or Medium?” By Kathryn E. Livingston

BOGOTA New Jersey—(Hubris)—January/February 2026—It’s a new year and, according to the psychics on YouTube, it’s going to be a doozy. Wait, what? Did I just admit that I watch psychics on YouTube? I did, and damn it, I make no apologies. (There is also a marvelous tarot card reader from Australia of whom I’m especially fond.) Of course, I still watch the “real news.” But a person can take only so much of that. Now, mind you, these particular psychics that I’m attached to are political seers. (This isn’t about whether my long-gone Uncle Alfred is sending me a message about my dog—if he did, that would be a sure giveaway because I don’t have one. If he’d sent me a message about my son’s cat, on the other hand, that would be telling. (Read more . . .)

Skip the B. S. 

“Rubicundity: Fitness,” By Dr. Skip Eisiminger

CLEMSON South Carolina—(Hubris)—January/February 2025—There was a time when I could leave the line at the Squat and Gobble and hear people say, “I envy that guy’s metabolism.” That was when my bike was my time machine, the pool was my baptismal font, and my softball teammates were the Immortals. I was one of the few in the Clemson English Department who knew the difference between “stomach muscles” and “abs,” “chest muscles” and “pecs,” “thighs” and “quads.” When my peers thought their muscular prose would suffice, I swam, cycled, or jogged thrice a week and occasionally hit the weight room. Yes, I was pushing 50, but pulling 45 was as easy as tweezing a few wild hairs from my unibrow. (Read more . . .)

Singing & Drowning

“Coloring Outside the Lines,” By Janet Kenny

POINT VERNON Australia—(Hubris)—January/February 2026—I am basically a formal poet who ignores the rules. Music has always dominated anything I do, and music is something I can’t escape in poetry. As an ex-singer who was obliged to perform singing translations of opera libretti, I was delighted to discover Vladimir Nabokov’s extended, “cranky,” critical argument about translations of Pushkin’s “Eugene Onegin.” Although I am incurably married to rhyme, I was convinced by his arguments for rejecting it in translation. The subtlety and depth of Pushkin’s characters is lessened when they are forced into an alien rhyming pattern. In contrast with Nabokov’s own unrhymed translation, the other rhymed translations seem unnatural and superficial. (Read more . . .)

Speculative Friction

“The Writing of Francine Witte,” By Claire Bateman, Poetry Editor

GREENVILLE South Carolina—(Hubris)—January/February 2026—New York City-based Francine Witte, a widely published flash fiction writer and poet, is the author of the flash collection RADIO WATER and a recent recipient of a Pushcart Prize. Her newest poetry book, Some Distant Pin of Light, is just out from Cervena Barva Press. Mostly, Witte says her poetry arises from a place between the realms of personal experience and fiction. Truth is the essence of her poems, she says, but they take whatever flights are necessary to fulfill the needs of each poem. Some of her poems are based on the deeply personal, family and relationships, while others look at the world beyond, both in the past and future. (Read more . . .)

Signal & Memory

“First Light,” By Daniel J. Dodson

AUSTIN Texas—(Hubris)—January/February 2026—Before the photons arrive from galaxies we’ll never visit—before telescopes catch them, digitize them, and send their faint, ancient messages cascading into petabyte archives—there is a quieter sort of first light. Not the kind that crosses a cosmic void, but the kind that spills out the front window of a neighborhood bookstore, warming a sidewalk still half-haunted by memory. The building used to be a US Post Office, back when stamps were small acts of faith rather than historical curiosities. In 2022, the mailboxes and brass slots gave way to shelves, and the old sorting room and worn floors became the First Light Book Shop—tucked in just a few blocks from one of Austin’s moonlight towers. (Read more . . .)

Close Encounters

“Blindsiding God,” By David Havird

SHREVEPORT Louisiana—(Hubris)—January/February 2026—“I’m especially pleased,” James Dickey writes, “by your response to ‘The Eagle’s Mile,’ which is one of the last serious poems I have written, and is different from most of the others.” That letter to me is dated December 21, 1983. Three years later, “The Eagle’s Mile” became the title poem, of course, of Dickey’s last book of new poetry—a splendid poem about the transmigration of a soul. Though William Douglas, whom the poem addresses, has been dead for a year or two, his soul is “still in time-flow,” as in a creek, say, or current of air or on a trail through woods, the Appalachian Trail. (Read more . . .)

Diatribe/North

“Rape Moon Rising: Celestial Victims of Sexual Violence,” By Dean Kalimniou

MELBOURNE Australia—(Hubris)—January/February 2026—When we turn our gaze skyward, to the constellations and planets that have guided human wonder for millennia, we encounter names that carry stories far beyond the shimmer of their surfaces. Naming is never an innocent act. It is, as Simone Weil discerned, an invocation that both reveals and conceals, an instrument through which chaos is disciplined into meaning. To name is to lay claim to the world, to draw its forms within the boundaries of language. The ancient practice of naming celestial bodies was never merely an effort of classification; it was the attempt of humanity to inscribe its memory, culture and myth upon the silent immensities of the heavens. (Read more . . .)

Plant People

“Liberate Your Pansies: The Rebels of January,” By Jenks Farmer

COLUMBIA South Carolina—(Hubris)—January/February 2026—The uncles, men who came of age in the 1950s, gently taught me life lessons. You might think a gay country boy from the rural South wouldn’t have gay uncles, but I did. The first in my life were Daddy’s brother, Buist, and his lover, whom the whole family called Uncle Michael. Then there were a host of other confirmed bachelors, garden mentors, antique dealers, and obvious-to-me “uncles.” I had never wanted to be their kind of gay. They seemed pretentious—despite having been cowed into careers in interior designer and directing bands—not to mention mostly closeted. But when I got my first real job developing Riverbanks Zoo’s Botanical Gardens, I started to appreciate them, to lean on, and even to seek their wisdom. (Read more . . .)

Planetary Hospice

“Burning Man (Woman, and Child),” By Dr. Guy McPherson

BELLOWS FALLS Vermont—(Hubris)—January/February 2026—The more I look, the worse it all seems. Adding fuel to the fire, a major report finds that heat kills a person on Earth every minute. From The Guardian on 28 October 2025 comes an article titled Rising heat kills one person a minute worldwide, major report reveals. The subhead reads: “Biggest analysis of its kind finds millions are dying each year from combined effects of failure to tackle climate crisis.” That lede is followed by four additional paragraphs that flesh out the horrible story: “Rising global heat is now killing one person a minute around the world, a major report on the health impact of the climate crisis has revealed. It says that the world’s addiction to fossil fuels also causes toxic air pollution, wildfires, and the spread of diseases such as dengue fever, and millions each year are dying owing to the failure to tackle global heating. (Read more . . .)