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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 19
Dec 19 Tiny Dancers

Patti Jo Amerein

They enter the dance studio in an energetic buzz—tiny humans in pink leotards with bulging little bellies.

Dec 18
Dec 18 How to Play

Christina Kapp

My grandfather taught me, leaning over his pool table, cigar stuck in his teeth as he squinted at the ball.

Dec 17
Dec 17 Salsa Lessons

Suzanne Roberts

While the others switch partners, we stay together, working on our steps, fumbling and laughing.

Dec 16
Dec 16 Smiles

Ian Owens

You can’t tell from the photo, but I was completely undone.

Dec 13
Dec 13 Stranger/Angel

Gina de Mendonca

Friday, 2 a.m. I’m walking home through darkness, sobering fast, from the dive bar I am barely old enough to work at.

Dec 12
Dec 12 Pão Doce

Ana C. H. Silva

I sit at our tall dining room table, home from college.

Dec 11
Dec 11 Heading North

Nancy Hesting

“Do you think you’ll remarry?”

Dec 9
Dec 9 The Protest

Abdurahiman Noushad

“Aren't you coming for the protest?” asked my hostel roommate while combing his silky hair.

Dec 6
Dec 6 Adventure

Elaina H

The hike had lasted four hours already. Complaints reached an all-time high.

Dec 5
Dec 5 Beachcombing

Callie Dean

The first time the Gulf waters rise to lick my unsuspecting son’s ankles, he loses his balance.

Dec 4
Dec 4 Break

Donna Woods

“Whatchu you in for?” she asked. “They said I need a break,” I replied.

Dec 3
Dec 3 The Departure

K.G. Song

We waited for our flight out of my home country. Those few minutes seemed to last forever.

Dec 2
Dec 2 Smoke and Stain

Stacy Bias

My grandmother chain-smoked Virginia Slims, the long, white, pleasingly perfect cylinders a permanent fixture in the corner of her mouth.

Nov 29
Nov 29 Winter Wanderer

Laura Schep

A gust of frigid wind startles me as the scraggly-bearded stranger opens the passenger door and demands we drive him home.

Nov 27
Nov 27 Polarities

Swati Moheet Agrawal

Two of my cousins are profusely talking about their holiday to Japan.

Nov 26
Nov 26 Sonic Boom

Christine Khuri

Bzzz—the sound of the drone flies over the Beirut skies.

Nov 25
Nov 25 73 Cents

Kimberley Lovato

The principal’s eyes bulged behind square glasses.

Nov 22
Nov 22 Recharged

Lina Lau

My four-year-old daughter flits around the bedroom, darting, and I’m panicked she will collide with a sharp corner.

Nov 21
Nov 21 My Rhyme Crime

Lynn Kozlowski

The older kids are playing a word-guessing game with our mothers.

Nov 20
Nov 20 Minivan

Abdulrahim Jamil

Here comes another familiar face. Dang, he's looking this 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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