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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

May 9
May 9 My First Time

May Akabogu

One afternoon, I left to fetch water at the stream, my earthenware pot balanced atop my head.

May 8
May 8 Stolen Glances

Kat Abdallah

Haylie told me to wait for someone who looks at me the way Flynn Rider looks at Rapunzel, an expression I saw on your face post-show at Buffalo Wild Wings.

May 7
May 7 Popcorn

Jeff Harvey

Sam needed a ride home after band practice.

May 6
May 6 Cherry Truck

Sheri McGuinn

I was driving across country with my kids, hoping to see our friend before she went into surgery for cancer.

May 4
May 4 Elephantween

Nina Miller

I stride to class, passing towering lockers.

May 1
May 1 First Boyfriend

Sienna Lew

My finger taps anxiously at the edge of my greasy screen as I anticipate his reply.

Apr 30
Apr 30 Summit Night

Maggie Downs

“I can’t do this,” I said, plopping down on the closest boulder.

Apr 29
Apr 29 Together Again

Linda Wolff

My sister and I sit on the floor, a small wooden table covered with our mom’s and grandmother’s jewelry between us.

Apr 26
Apr 26 New Year's 2024

Gabrielle Robinson

On my New Year’s Day walk I noticed an old man looking jaunty in a red tartan scarf.

Apr 25
Apr 25 Downhill Trek

Prerna Barooah

Midway through my walk, I realize the thing I dread is about to happen.

Apr 24
Apr 24 Smash

Linda M. Bayley

Some mornings in the hospital they gave us boiled eggs, unpeeled puzzles we had to solve in our blue pyjamas.

Apr 23
Apr 23 Nero's

Tim Stiles

Up in Tahoe, Ken had a night.

Apr 22
Apr 22 Resemblance

HIlary Harper

When the Amtrak train arrived from Chicago, I stood on the platform anxiously watching as passengers began to exit.

Apr 19
Apr 19 Why I Write

Whitney Weisenberg

When I say "car," it doesn’t sound like a crow crying out. I don’t “warsh up” or “dash off to the loo.”

Apr 18
Apr 18 Fifth Birthday

Shoshauna Shy

Probably two or three-hundred pounds of bare naked man is bobbling towards me along the sidewalk outside of the Soldier’s Grove Public Library on Main Street.

Apr 17
Apr 17 Unemployment

Surbhi Agarwal

My computer is whirring, the screen hot to touch.

Apr 16
Apr 16 Foreigner

Arvee Fantilagan

My girlfriend’s nephew, barely five, alternated between squeezing my hand and excitedly scooting ahead to the onsen, then skipping back to us.

Apr 15
Apr 15 The Grounded

Krystal Tyree

Dad was dead, but that was beside the point.

Apr 13
Apr 13 Knickknacks

Bobbi Lerman

Whenever my mom came over, she would, within minutes of her arrival, move all of my knickknacks around.

Apr 12
Apr 12 Trans Relief

Sophie Dufresne

I hold my breath as I ask the secretary over the phone what my neurosurgeon said.

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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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