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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

Sep 4
Sep 4 Prey. Predator.

Lisa Witz

In winter, the girl is taught coyote is enemy.

Sep 3
Sep 3 To Emulate

Anushka S Kulkarni

The automatic door slid out of the way.

Sep 1
Sep 1 First Light

KC Courtland

At sunrise, I watch my father rest both hands on the top of his shovel and stare past the wash.

Aug 31
Aug 31 The Hindjew

Nina Miller

The girls in my second-grade class asked me what my religion was.

Aug 31
Aug 31 Barrier Reef

Brian McNely

The prompt is “What are your anchors?”

Aug 30
Aug 30 Early Optimism

M. Atchleross

I was far too young to have known it was a period.

Aug 29
Aug 29 Little Things

Elliot Gray Boodhan

I'm logging hours for payroll when a child approaches, her eyes fixated on my hands as she extends her own, palms hidden of course.

Aug 28
Aug 28 The Storm

Megan Neary

On a beautiful fall day, the sirens sang of a coming tornado.

Aug 28
Aug 28 Disappointment

Jamie Martin

Alone in the house, hormones firing, I prioritize a moment of self pleasure.

Aug 27
Aug 27 Last Stop

John Holmes

Dad’s funeral cortege gave way at the junction when a recycling collection lorry went past.

Aug 27
Aug 27 The Overlap

Liz Wilson

As I sift through her collection of letters, a pink card catches my eye.

Aug 26
Aug 26 She Means Well

Lily Luz

I rush over to my panicked coworker with wadded napkins and apply pressure to her bloody finger.

Aug 26
Aug 26 Just One More

Gia Kim

I get Jaimie to the bathroom before she can vomit all over my new jeans, but she misses anyway—our price for being drunk and seventeen.

Aug 25
Aug 25 Banana Bread

Barbara Matteau

She took out her mixing bowl and spoons. Found the right size baking pan and then lined up all the ingredients.

Aug 25
Aug 25 Catsup Surprise

Michael Edward Kitchen

Errands with Mom ended with her new hairdo, and we went to Burger Chef, a rare treat.

Aug 24
Aug 24 It Goes On

Katelyn Lau

I clutch the radio, twisting the antenna rapidly back and forth, back and forth.

Aug 24
Aug 24 Fighting Chance

Jerrit Duhon

She's in the hospital when my son draws on the kitchen floor in permanent marker, a sprawling battlefield of stick figures with swords.

Aug 23
Aug 23 A+

Susanna Blagrove

Assume competence, they drill into parents, but that is always easier said than done.

Aug 23
Aug 23 Morning Miracle

Lily Luz

“More grounds came out than beans went in,” he yawns as if everyone performs groggy pre-dawn miracles.

Aug 22
Aug 22 Lift the Veil

Carla Rudy

I live behind a graveyard.

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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. 
Click through to our monthly newsletter (5minutes100words) and/or our weekly digest (fiveminutesweeklydigest), both on Substack.

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