Hi, Fivers!

No big news! Just your good words. Keep them coming!

Susanna and the team at Five Minutes

Goodbye March

Thanks to our March Guest Readers Isabelle B.L, Sara Bednark, Amanda Callais, Ian Li, Nia Mahmud, April McCloud, Nina Miller, Kate Meen, and Clorisa Phillips for tackling nearly 80 March submissions.

Hello April

Welcome, April readers!

Robert Allen (THE BOX) lives with his family in Oakland, CA where he writes poems and coaches poets in their craft. www.robertallenpoet.com X: @robertallenpoet  

Samantha Bennett (CONNECT) has been published in the Toronto Standard, Spectator Tribune out of the Prairies, and Five Minutes, among others. She is currently seeking to publish her first book of creative nonfiction personal essays. Samantha lives in White Rock, British Columbia.

Finnian Burnett (BIRTHDAY CALL, JUST A HAIRCUT) is a BC-based writer whose writing explores the intersections of mental health, the body, and gender identity. They are a 2023 Canada Council for the Arts grant recipient, a 2023 CBC finalist, and a 2024 Pushcart Nominee. Finn's most recent release is The Price of Cookies, a novella-in-flash published by Off Topic Publishing. 

Jennifer Smith Gray (THE LAYOFF) grew up in beautiful Northern Ontario and now lives in the beautiful Scarborough Bluffs area of Toronto. Both places influence her writing. She has work in Five Minutes, Sweet Lit, Memoir Mixtapes, and Birkensnake. www.jennifersmithgray.com Instagram: @isshedreaming

Naz Knudsen (HELIOTROPE) is an Iranian-American writer and filmmaker. Her fiction and nonfiction work have been nominated for Pushcart Prize and Best Microfiction series. She is an editor at Sugarsugarsalt magazine. She lives in Durham, North Carolina, and teaches digital storytelling and journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. nazknudsen.com Bluesky, Instagram, and X: @Nazbk

Kate Meen, who lives in Salem, Massachusetts, joins us for a third month as editorial intern. She enjoys reading books of any genre, though always appreciates a good fantasy novel. She is also fond of writing, knitting, and drawing. She hopes to one day be a journalist.

Corey Paige (AUDITION FLOP) is a fierce Californian with an MFA from UCLA. He has written films for Ridley Scott, Matt Damon, Live Planet, and Universal, among others. He lives in West Hollywood with his poet wife and hooligan dog. You can find his essays in JAKE, Drunk Monkeys, The Hooghly Review, and Five Minutes.

Pam Plumb (KEEP BREATHING) is from NE England and is wrangling a crime novel while completing a Creative Writing MA. Publications include Crossing the Tees: The Sixth Short Story Anthology, Scratching the Sands: 2023 National Flash Fiction Day Anthology, Paragraph Planet, and Five Minutes. Forthcoming story in The Ogham Stone 2024. Pushcart nominee times 2. pamjplumb.wordpress.com X: @pamjplumb

Huina Zheng (DIFFERENT MOTHERS), with her Distinction M.A. in English Studies, is a college essay coach and an editor at Bewildering Stories. Her stories appear in Baltimore Review, Variant Literature, and more. Nominated twice for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net, she lives in Guangzhou, China with her family.

As always, Founding Reader Bobbi Lerman, Managing Editor Maria S. Picone, and Editor Susanna Baird are reading too.

High Fives!

Submit your new good news on our Contributor Updates page. Alpha by writer last name.

—to Sarah Barnett, whose I IMAGINE THE SUN CHANGING ITS MIND received a Highly Commended designation in the 2024 National Flash Fiction Day Microfiction Competition 

—to Lisa Braxton for publishing DANCING BETWEEN THE RAINDROPS: A DAUGHTER’S REFLECTIONS ON LOVE AND LOSS with Sea Crow Press

—to Tara Dugan for publishing NOW WE’RE COOKING WITH FIRE in Pangyrus

—to Jann Everard for publishing BLUE RUNAWAYS: STORIES with Stonehewer Books

—to Oona Metz for publishing ENDING A MARRIAGE THAT’S ALREADY OVER in Psychotherapy Networker

—to Damhuri Muhammad for publishing THE PAST SAND GRAINS in 101 words

—to Mimi Zieman for publishing TAP DANCING ON EVEREST: A YOUNG DOCTOR’S UNLIKELY ADVENTURE with Falcon

—to John Sheirer for publishing FOR NOW: ONE HUNDRED 100-WORD STORIES with Meat for Tea

—to Bryan Vale for publishing RULES FOR OUR AIRBNB in Does It Have Pockets?

Prompts

• mosaic • strong perfume • loosie • snarl • dizzy • buckle down • tracks • bad joke • asphalt • toothpaste • bananas • monitor • signal tower • robe • cone • pickle • coffee cake • bag of food • knee • snare • insulation
Write 100 & Submit!

Submissions Spotlight: Pangyrus

Pangyrus publishes online and in print and, per the editors, “is about connection. We bring readers to make unexpected connections across a wide range of ideas, genres, and geographies.” The journal accepts “all the good stuff” during two open submissions periods, and always accepts “lightning pieces” — NF essays up to 2,500 words that are “immediately relevant.” Submit!

Lines & Links

Every first line from March . . .

“Are you ready?” asks the minister.—GOING FORWARD by Julie Noblitt

I didn't cry when I folded Dad’s clothes into Bags For Life (irony not lost).—VISITING by Marie Little

We spark the menthol loosie, purchased for a quarter. —BARBARA&LUCILLE by L. Soviero

Something between a thud and a crack. —LIFT-SLIDE-PULL by Stacy Boone

I’d heard that Europeans went topless at the beach and tried it solo the summer of my twenty-second year. —ALICANTE by Bella Mahaya Carter

I’ve wasted enough time like this.—IN TWO MINDS by Amita Basu

Dad, as always, noticed first. —THE KILL by Alice Hotopp

My boyfriend embraced me in a hug. —DON’T BE SCARED by Lilo Hayes

Snow swirls along the icy black asphalt. —TO SURRENDER by Amy Y. Tan

I am three years old, standing on my twin bed, gazing at the wall. —TOOTHPASTE by Sharon Goldberg

As I step off the airplane, tropical heat wallops me like a bag of bananas to the face.—STARTING LINE by Marion Lougheed

The nurse croons encouragement as the anesthesiologist mumbles, “It will sting.”—CESAREAN by Sarina Caragan

Vacation adrenaline still coursing through my veins, I tackle the mountains of laundry.—WONDER by Linda Schueler

The irony is, I am not a judgmental person, and yet here we are, you (cowed) and I (robed), you telling me about how a night out celebrating your birthday turned terrible . . . —ADJUDICATION by Kyra Valentine

I arrive in rubber boots to help Rich and Nancy process their flock. —DINNER FOR REAL by Beth Glosten 

It was Saturday at the indoor farmers market and I was half awake as I stood in line for pickles. —NOT FROM HERE by Maya Benattar

“Don’t you dare walk in empty-handed,” my mother yells to me from the kitchen.—COFFEE CAKE by Kathy Curto

looking down at pilot on the bare linoleum, my husband said we should place him back on the blanket.—we lifted him by Laurel Parry

The pickup game featured plenty of contact: banging in the paint, wrestling on defense, boxing out for rebounds. —HARDWOOD by John Sheirer

Stop scratching, Mama hisses, flicking my six-year-old fingers off my calves. —SWEET BLOOD by Elita Suratman

We’d been in that house before. —PINK AS DEATH by Chrissy Stegman

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