Fault: a flaw, a failing. The responsibility to be borne for a mistake. But also: a geological phenomenon; a crack in the earth’s crust, entirely natural, part and parcel of how the planet works.

What cracks – in ourselves, in others, in our circumstances – do we long to erase, or take the blame for, or try to patch up? What effect does this have on us? ‘I found meaning in apologising’, Kamna Muddagouni writes. ‘But in doing so, I lost the language to express my own discomfort and to give myself space to grieve.'

What if something we’ve failed at isn’t actually failure, even though we’ve been conditioned to think so? Annabel Smith and Lur Alghurabi reflect on their failed marriages – in the context of the husbands, families, and value systems that failed to support them for who they were. Masako Fukui visits a home-museum created by a kamikaze pilot who ‘failed to die’ and tries to make sense of her own father’s past as a former Special Attack Forces trainee.

In a world where high-definition media has become the gold standard, asks Zach Karpinellison, ‘How then do we consciously and thoughtfully celebrate and comprehend lower quality images?’ Can we appreciate their beauty instead of seeing them as inferior?

To round off this week’s selection, we include a creative non-fiction piece by Yumna Kassab reflecting on the colossal moral failures that accompany the nation-building project. What happens when Australian society proudly surveys the wrongs it commits and insists on calling them success?

Speaking of Yumna Kassab, it is our pleasure to announce that she will be curating next week’s edition of The Circular. She will be the very first of twelve guest editors slated for this year! Her chosen theme? The Alchemy of Translation.

You may want to tell the translation aficionados in your life to subscribe post haste!