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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 24
Jan 24 Words of Wisdom

Miguel Ángel Calvo

The judges of the contest praised my drawing.

Jan 24
Jan 24 Writing Horror

Karin Round

My husband and I lounged on the couch watching YouTube highlights from Stanley Kubrick’s movie The Shining.

Jan 23
Jan 23 Nick at Nite

Didem Uca

With powdered sugar dusting our faces and fingers from the half-moon cookies we spent half the day baking, we turn on Channel 22.

Jan 22
Jan 22 Gum

Jalen Giovanni Jones

I remember, for my first 18 years, I couldn’t fathom kissing.

Jan 21
Jan 21 Compliant

Elizabeth Erin Thomas

Mom blow-dries my hair into straw.

Jan 17
Jan 17 Mademoiselle

Paul Goodwin

They call me The Dunce, but I know the answer.

Jan 16
Jan 16 Homecoming 1988

Susan Michalowski

As I approached my parents’ tailgate, I spotted him immediately: my prodigal brother, fresh from eight months in rehab.

Jan 16
Jan 16 Florida Kids

Fatima Alharthi

Four upper teeth, three lower, You bounce, smiling, leaning on the red Arabian armrest passed down from three families.

Jan 13
Jan 13 Chicken Leg

Huina Zheng

"Why always give me the chicken leg?" my five-year-old asked as I placed it in her bowl.

Jan 10
Jan 10 Daily Ritual

David Godin

“Lisa,” I yelled as I toweled dry, fresh from the shower.

Jan 9
Jan 9 Seven Years Old

Kelsey Blair

Trisha Yearwood’s “She’s in Love with the Boy” plays and suddenly it’s 1996 and I’m in the grocery store with chill bumps on my sunburnt legs.

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.

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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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