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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

Jan 7
Jan 7 Working at Home

Carmela Starace

I streamed a new NBC show about a neurodivergent doctor.

Jan 6
Jan 6 Rings

Cassandra Caverhill

Pink and black dots constellate the toilet bowl.

Jan 3
Jan 3 Free at Last

CT Moon

I only knew of two kinds of hysterectomies: total or partial.

Jan 2
Jan 2 Earth Day

Owen Hunter

Today is all about the Earth.

Dec 30
Dec 30 Freeze

Salena Casha

The game starts, as it always does, on the mulch by the back slide.

Dec 27
Dec 27 Psychosis, 2024

Joanna Acevedo

After Michael died by suicide I began compulsively lying to strangers.

Dec 26
Dec 26 Toaster Problem

Maria Ordovas-Montanes

A burning scent signals me to turn towards the stove.

Dec 23
Dec 23 Pine Water

Kate Hartikka

Pine needles. They’re everywhere, mixing with red clay at the base of the long drive.

Dec 20
Dec 20 Stolen Tomatoes

Joel Bryant

Trusted watering can in hand I approach my greenhouse.

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.

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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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