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. 

Micromemoir Marathon 2026

Micromemoir Marathon 2026

Susanna Baird

26 days, 26 contests, 26 judges, 26 winning micromemoirs!

Anytime between May 6 and May 31, submit to any or all of the following contests/themes. All pieces must be 100 words, must focus on a very short period of time (think five minutes), and must be centered on real events you experienced.

Winners will be announced in July, and will receive $5 and a big WOOHOO! Anyone who enters all 26 contests will be recognized as well.

CONTESTS
Into the Wild • Glitz • Inheritance • Sting • Lie to Me • Then I Remembered Where I Had Seen That Face Before • The Ordinary That Wasn't • Music Box • Friends and Friendship • Broken • Songs, Sounds, and Voices • Five-Minute Noir • Loss • Out of Range • Praise Rain • Fraught Firsts • Exceed Expectations • A Watery World • Ripe • Unusual Vacations • Wish • Care • Hope • Intersections • Two more on the way!

Please read Five Minutes’ guidelines for regular submissions, which apply here, except you MAY submit even if you have pieces upcoming in Five Minutes, and you may submit to every contest. We will return your entry and request a re-format if guidelines haven’t been followed.

Enter contests at Submittable beginning May 6. Our regular submissions portal will be closed in May and reopen June 1.