Temperatures are dropping—it’s time to curl up with the new issue of The Southern Review! The autumn 2017 issue features all manner of blustery weather, from the annual ritual of clearing fallen leaves in Bonnie Jo Campbell’s poem “The Same Old Story, with Leaf Blower,” to the icy Appalachian winter of Ron Rash’s story “The Baptism,” to the December jog described in John Casteen’s poem “Boxing Day.” In the issue you can visit the snowy mountains of northern Pakistan with Farah Ali’s guidebook-as-story, “Tourism,” and travel back to a WWII recruitment office in Evan Lavender-Smith’s tribute to his grandfather’s life story—and storytelling ability—in “The Itch and the Touch.” Along with new poems by David Kirby, Bob Hicok, and Taije Silverman, the issue also features the cut-paper collage paintings of New York-based artist Jesse McCloskey, whose sometimes-spooky images yet glow with possibility and warmth.
