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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

Dec 14
Dec 14 New York Summer

Julia Kantic

Words flew free and wild, no safety net, no rules, no brakes.

Dec 13
Dec 13 Motherhood

Bethany Jarmul

On the beach we taste salt when we speak.

Dec 13
Dec 13 Roller Coaster

Wendy Newbury

As our ten-car train cranked up the 105-foot-tall chain-lift hill for the ninety-degree one-hundred-foot drop, I regretted hopping on.

Dec 12
Dec 12 Handoff

Michelle I Linder

Two eyes, haunting. Ten fingers, gripping. You hike your Elmo backpack higher.

Dec 12
Dec 12 A.M. Reflection

Pamela Moss

Each morning, I see my blurry face in the shaving mirror that you left suction-cupped to my shower wall.

Dec 11
Dec 11 Psalm 24

Oluwatosin Okupa

My grandma is obsessed with Psalm 24.

Dec 11
Dec 11 There He Is

Kim Kelly Stamp

I sway back and forth anxiously while keeping my eyes riveted to the scene unfolding on our 65-inch TV.

Dec 8
Dec 8 Aftermath

Christian Ward

"You have cancer." Three words no one expects to hear in their lifetime.

Dec 8
Dec 8 The Crow

Amrita Valan

The beady-eyed beaky bird with glossy silver-grey coat pounced on any crumbs I tossed on my windowsill.

Dec 7
Dec 7 Scene

Mary Ann Honaker

There are scenes from life that imprint on your mind permanently.

Dec 7
Dec 7 A Great Mom

Christi Byerly

My mom's butt was high in the air and her head was buried in the blankets.

Dec 6
Dec 6 His Son's Name

Cheryl Somers Aubin

It was cold in the National Cathedral that rainy night forty-one years ago, and smelled of stale air and incense.

Dec 6
Dec 6 Lake Superior

Angela Byrne

My feet can't reach the water where waves have caressed me before. I stretch to touch her with my toes.

Dec 5
Dec 5 Miz Cookie Paul

Donna Williams

Ms. Cookie Paul, a black businesswoman in our small Texas town, mentored us black girls.

Dec 5
Dec 5 Cravings

Nia Mahmud

I peer at the prices in the gas station and comment that chocolate shouldn’t cost so much.

Nov 20
Nov 20 Every Night

Lori Aghazarian

Unidentified pain wakes me, though awareness filters slowly.

Nov 18
Nov 18 Beaming Bridge

Mimi Zieman

With three school-aged children, our family squeezed in a trip over winter break despite the expected frigid weather.

Nov 17
Nov 17 Mount Defiance

Julia Clebsch

The gravel road ascended Mount Defiance, a Revolutionary War site.

Nov 16
Nov 16 Socorro

Bryan Vale

Later, we would find out that Jeff had survived . . .

Nov 15
Nov 15 See/Be Seen

Marion Agnew

This is what happened, but it’s not when it began. We don't know when that was.

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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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