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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

Apr 21
Apr 21 Last Day

Miguel Ángel Calvo

We will fly back home this evening, but now we are still in southern Gran Canaria, looking to the east, sitting on a bench on the deserted promenade.

Apr 20
Apr 20 Model Wife

Carol Alfred

Our youngest is marrying tomorrow; yesterday the last of my hair fell out, victim of my first chemotherapy treatment.

Apr 19
Apr 19 Goodbye Quietly

Maggie Hart

I hear the nurse gasp quietly and I crane my neck up, following her eyes across the entryway.

Apr 18
Apr 18 Preschool Party

Jane Dagenais

She withheld a cupcake from each child, asking, "What do you say?"

Apr 17
Apr 17 The Whisper

Carole Horan

The hospital smells fill my nostrils as emergency room personnel rush from one area to another.

Apr 16
Apr 16 Starting School

Apple An

I passed the interview. Jade was next. I turned my hands into fists, hoping our practice helped.

Apr 15
Apr 15 Sweet Sixteen

Cristina Puccia Van Grol

Our hands melt together walking the dashed yellow line, wondering who is leading who, when I trip up the curb of Lincoln Ave.

Apr 12
Apr 12 Koimētērion

Nisâ Sevsay

I’m walking in Père Lachaise Cemetery.

Apr 12
Apr 12 Repulsive

Holly Fontanetta

I start picking, and I’m picking, leaning in close, climbing the sink, eye-to-eye with myself.

Apr 9
Apr 9 Rookie Mistake

Paula Turcotte

On my projector screen, I Googled “new dictionary words 2016,” clicked the first hit, and resumed my spiel.

Apr 7
Apr 7 Register No. 4

Jamie McElhatton

I work in a little grocery store with a friend who says my hair is pretty.

Apr 5
Apr 5 Anomaly

Melissa Williams

An hour after the ventilator was turned off, I was speaking my first words in three weeks.

Apr 4
Apr 4 Passing Thought

John Holmes

I always take this bend in the road very carefully.

Apr 4
Apr 4 7:55 A.M.

Sara Siddiqui Chansarkar

I'm still in pajamas but you are showered and ready for an appointment.

Apr 3
Apr 3 Learning English

Ana Gomez

“Let’s address the elephant in the room,” said the sustainability expert.

Mar 31
Mar 31 Death Threat

David Henson

“You never know until it’s too late,” my 90-year-old mother says.

Mar 31
Mar 31 Sick Day

Mary Ann Honaker

All day I've thrashed in bed, pinned like a butterfly to my dreams. When I rise, darkness has fallen.

Mar 29
Mar 29 Alyx

Alyx Gilbertson

I asked her over dinner: If I were to change my name, what should I change it to?

Mar 28
Mar 28 Carmela

Salvatore Difalco

“You don’t believe me,” my stricken mother said between sobs.

Mar 27
Mar 27 Beyond Words

Beth Kanter

I flew to Chicago to hold her hand, but when I reached for it, tubes, tape, and a stent were in the way.

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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, email susanna@fiveminutelit.com with the subject line: Newsletter.
To receive our weekly digest, containing the week’s stories, email susanna@fiveminutelit.com with the subject line: Digest.

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