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Five Minutes explores five minutes of a life in one hundred words. Five minutes is edited by Susanna Baird, with editorial support from managing editor Maria s. picone, newsletter editor kate meen, and founding reader bobbi lerman, plus our rotating team of guest readers, who you can meet in the latest newsletteR. Five Minutes was founded in October 2020, with the Salem (Mass.)-based writing group Carrot Cake Writers supplying the journal’s first pieces. We’d love to read your five. Submit here. 

Five Minutes One hundred words

Oct 21
Oct 21 The Pickle Jar

Sarah Chin

The jar fought me.

Oct 20
Oct 20 Hurricane Alley

Marie Cloutier

The three of us sat at the dinner table, TV news a few feet away.

Oct 17
Oct 17 Tremors

Sarp Sozdinler

We drink on the tracks behind our old school, tucked under the exhale of pines.

Oct 16
Oct 16 Plus One

Jen Bryant

Two months after the divorce, you attend a wedding with your ex-husband.

Oct 15
Oct 15 Eternal Flame

Keturah Fountaine

I wake up sweating. Click on the ceiling fan.

Oct 14
Oct 14 The Lodger

Helen Biggs

When I wake up for the second time my hangover has mostly abated, and there is a pigeon nesting on the roof.

Oct 10
Oct 10 Breakfast Fail

Salvatore Difalco

My grade-two teacher Miss Dowd taped a chart to the blackboard extolling the benefits of a healthy breakfast.

Oct 9
Oct 9 Little Incident

Sandra Hudson

Twelve years his junior, I look to my husband for landmarks and landmines when it comes to aging.

Oct 8
Oct 8 Encouragement

Angela Lam

Four months after a concussion, I lay on the sofa wondering if I would be useless for the rest of my life.

Oct 7
Oct 7 Apprehension

Tracy Royce

The cop announces he’s going to dispatch the rattlesnake with his pistol.

Oct 4
Oct 4 Making the Cut

Chase Troxell

Dad held up the envelope with one word printed on it: Yes!

Oct 3
Oct 3 Released

Jennifer Gippel

We sat on a park bench, chatting about our grown children.

Sep 30
Sep 30 Tightrope

Mridula Morgan

Sugar rush plus pucker from the sour.

Sep 29
Sep 29 Kindness

Emily Hall

The old man hands me his phone.

Sep 26
Sep 26 Dad's Trombone

Albert DeGenova

Piece by piece, my small hands carefully fit together the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen . . .

Sep 25
Sep 25 Earliest Memory

Fiona M Jones

I am two years old.

Sep 23
Sep 23 Lifespan

Nicole Irizawa

The stoop light still worked, but had begun blinking and flashing like a disco-era strobe light.

Sep 22
Sep 22 Deleted

Katie Veltum

Three weeks after my father died we held a burial ceremony followed by a late lunch at a kitschy chain bistro.

Sep 19
Sep 19 Sun Pictures

David Lowe

We were tense, we hadn’t spoken all day.

Sep 18
Sep 18 Floating

Karen Webber

House to half, then to black. Barbara Cook glides onstage . . .

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Five Minutes features micro-memoirs, hundred-word pieces about five minutes in a life.
We’d love to read your five. Submit here. 
To receive our monthly newsletter, Five Minutes More, head to Substack!
To receive our weekly digest, containing the week’s stories, email susanna@fiveminutelit.com with the subject line: Digest.

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