Special Issue 7.2

When I write aperture, what does it mean to you? Perhaps you think initially of photography – the amount of light permitted entry to the camera. Or, if you’re an architect, you may be more familiar with aperture as the term to identify windows, doors, or other points of access or boundary between interior and exterior spaces. For those with scientific backgrounds, you may visualize a telescope or microscope - the tools you adjust to see things very small, or very far away. Meditating on the word aperture can become a self-fulfilling act, in which the openings and opportunities emerge more and more as you consider its meaning: portals, gaps, chasms, voids, wounds, entries, or exits. The work collected in this special issue compound this consideration more broadly than I possibly imagined. These writers explore aperture as it relates to the perils of AI, the potential for parenthood, shifting dynamics in relationships, art, legacy, and more. The resounding quintessence of each of these pieces insist that aperture, perhaps most significantly, is an opportunity to reach across the chasm and glimpse the interiority of other lives lived. It is with pleasure I present to you Special Issue 7.2: Aperture.

— Meredith MacLeod Davidson
2024 Creative Nonfiction Intern