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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

Nov 14
Nov 14 The Last Oreo

Rashmi Bhopi

She picked up a lone sock and a jacket in one hand, a crumpled moist tissue paper in the other.

Nov 10
Nov 10 Baby Love Redux

Carol Alfred

At six weeks old she is a wisp of a being who collapses against me in total repose before she finishes most bottles.

Nov 9
Nov 9 Dad's Work Van

Stephanie Abraham

Dented and dirty, it rolled right out of my façade of middle-classness.

Nov 8
Nov 8 Thunder in May

Heather Cline

The sky was gray; the thunder rumbling quietly, as if it knew, like it was mourning too.

Nov 7
Nov 7 Magic in Ojai

Darcy Alsop

I drove with anxious anticipation, little flutters keeping me present in my body.

Nov 6
Nov 6 I Owe Her This

Vickie Fernandez

A fantasy turned nightmare. Ripped tights, blood on gravel – a sacrifice.

Nov 3
Nov 3 Your Only Save

Salena Casha

As you guide the lane line roller around the diving well, the grit behind your eyes clicks.

Nov 2
Nov 2 Beach Bodies

Amrita V. Nair

Every Wednesday in winter, when there was hardly anyone else there, I went down to the beach and read until sunset.

Nov 1
Nov 1 Losing Currency

Holly Brady

My name is YaYa. I’m sitting here in the corner of my daughter’s home, surrounded by toddlers and their parents.

Oct 31
Oct 31 Angels Landing

Hillary Jones

The micro-spikes I’ve strapped to the bottom of my trail runners make me feel confident.

Oct 30
Oct 30 Summer, 2014

Ashley McCurry

I remind you of my generational trauma as you carry another box to the moving truck, but you don’t respond.

Oct 30
Oct 30 Patterns

Ellen Acconcia

One summer, we sat on the stoop in front of my best friend’s building and her mother taught us to crochet.

Oct 27
Oct 27 Margaret's Party

Salvatore Difalco

Aunt Celestina carefully packaged party gifts for the kids in red-and-white polka-dot boxes she’d bought at the Dollar Store.

Oct 25
Oct 25 Rookie

Annie Cowell

There’s an intruder in my kitchen.

Oct 24
Oct 24 Fractured

Rachel Lynn

I love music but I don’t dance. The rare times I’m asked I politely decline, but this guy was especially insistent.

Oct 23
Oct 23 Unforgettable

Linda G. Hatton

We tramp around the lily pad-filled lake, eavesdropping on conversation fragments.

Oct 20
Oct 20 Commuter Rail

Lisa Braxton

“Excuse me.” A man wanted to sit on my aisle seat.

Oct 19
Oct 19 Introvert Life

Monica Shah

On line at ShopRite, the plump woman behind me, lifting a package of pickled beets from my cart, asks “Are these any good?”

Oct 18
Oct 18 Twirl

Megan Kosse

“Daddy, twirl!” our five-year-old daughter squeals the first time she sees them wearing a dress.

Oct 17
Oct 17 The Push

Josh Turiel

“Five minutes remaining!” is the shout of my coach as the workout hits the home stretch.

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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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