This autumn the new issue of The Southern Review is timely and haunting. Valerie Sayers’s “Do-Gooders” offers a humorous take on the lives of two aging, idealistic teachers with a history of political activism, while Sara Majka brings us the story of a woman who cares for an abandoned refugee child and is forced to make an impossible choice when his family asks for his return. Joni Tevis weaves together movies and music in “And Shelter Cannot Help Us,” and Roberta Kwok takes us to the Arctic in search of narwhals with her short essay, “Click.” Kevin Prufer offers two new political poems, while Pultizer Prize-winning poet Charles Simic dives into his storied insomnia. You’ll also find poems by Chelsea Dingman, David Baker, and emerging writer Yuxi Lin alongside photographs by Brent Pallas, whose work captures moments of reading from around the world.