Hi, Fivers:
Good stuff below. Keep reading.
Susanna and the Team at Five Minutes
Come to Salem (Massachusetts, US)
Plans are underway for our next Five Live event in Salem, Massachusetts, to take place on Saturday, September 6 as part of the Salem Literary Festival. If you happen to be nearby on that date and want to join us and read one of your Fives we’d love to have you. Email susanna@fiveminutelit.com.
Goodbye April
Thank you again to our April readers, Finnian Burnett, Paula Finn, Dave Godin, Abdulrahim Jamil, Kimberley Lovato, Kate Meen, and Amanda Roth. They read 53 pieces! (Our editors are currently processing March scores.)
Hello May
Patti Jo Amerein (“Tiny Dancers”) is a writer, a boy mom, an ex-Las Vegas showgirl, and a Master Pilates teacher. She lives on a farm in beautiful rural Washington with her husband, her Friesian, sheep, chickens, dogs, cats, and too many unwanted gophers. Instagram: @pj_amerein
Rebecca Ingalls (“Housefire,” “Call and Answer”) is a former English professor, now midwife and nurse practitioner. Her work has been published in Five Minutes and Beautiful Things (River Teeth), and it has been shortlisted for the Bridport Prize for flash fiction. She lives in New England with her family.
Tammy Komoff's (“Along Together”) work has appeared in Abyss & Apex, Five Minutes, and more. When not writing she can be found chasing her semi-feral daughters and their escape-artist mutt around Central Florida while her husband tries to keep up. For more information please visit tammykomoff.com. Bluesky: @tammykomoff.bsky.social.
Jack Lazonde, a French/Australian student, studies foreign languages at the Sorbonne Nouvelle in Paris. Jack is particularly drawn to the writings of Rosario Ferré, Guy de Maupassant, Truman Capote, and Italo Calvino. Jack is Five Minutes’ May editorial intern.
M.E. Line (“5:25 A.M.”) uses her writing to express the truth behind the most impactful experiences of her life. She finds joy in music, movement, meditation, and sharing small moments with her two young girls. Her work has appeared in Off Topic Publishing, Anodyne Magazine, and Five Minutes. Facebook: m.e.line.writes Instagram: m.e.line.writes.
Arianna Smith (“Flush”) lives in California. She was a top-ten finalist for Five Minutes' Fall 2024 Contest ("Flush”). Her flash fiction has been featured in OFIC Mag, 50-Word Stories, and elsewhere.
Natalie Wong (“Bug Lover”) is a writer from Hong Kong who writes about the magical and horrifying things that happen when people can't express themselves. She is an incoming MFA candidate in the University of Washington-Seattle’s Creative Writing Program. She runs the blog You Make Me 食 Sik about food she doesn’t like. Substack: You Make Me Sick
As always Founding Reader Bobbi Lerman and Editor Susanna Baird are reading.
High Fives
Congratulations …
— to Misti Duvall for publishing “Genre Interleaving” with Oh Reader
— to Thaddeus Rutkowski for publishing “Homemade” with Union Spring
— to Nina Miller for publishing “I Have Reservations!” with Micromance Magazine
— to Steph Lay for publishing “Following the Long Thread Home” in the Milton Keynes Literary Festival anthology Home
— to Jeff Kennedy for publishing “Martin Waters the Flowers” with Bright Flash Literary Review and “#AITA” with Everscribe Magazine
— to Emily Benson for publishing “Fair Trade” with Wild Roof Journal
— to Mark Hendrickson for publishing two haiku with The Haiku Shack Magazine
— to Kate Pyontek for publishing “Marcescence” with Pithead Chapel
— to Amanda Le Rougetel for publishing “An Otherwise Ordinary Day” with Intima
— to Linnea Petersonfor publishing “Lyd, Not Lydia” in A Truth Universally Acknowledged: Queer Fanworks Inspired by Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice”
—to Evena Gottschalk for publishing “Sweet Scent of Baby Powder” in Prairie Fire’s 50 Over 50: Honoring Women Writers in Canada: Part 2
Head to our Contributor Updates page to share your good news. If we missed shouting out a piece of your good news, please remind us.
Submissions Spotlight: Oh Reader
Oh Reader publishes four times a year, focussing on stories about readers’ experiences. They are a “magazine for and by readers.” They accept nonfiction, humor, and poetry. They do not accept fiction. To submit to Oh Reader go here.
Visit past Submissions Spotlights for more inspo. Know a journal Newsletter Editor Kate should highlight? Email susanna@fiveminutelit.com, subject line “Submissions Spotlight Idea.” Must publish nonfiction.
Prompts
Inspired by our April pieces.
Ow! • maybe • cleats • waiting room • movie • hotel room • in bed • orange • edible • camcorder • on the way • hot • ship • scar • fort • green liquid • exam
Lines & Links
Every first line from April:
“Oooowww!” — “Foul Ball” by Angela Stevens
Even before I’d touched my newborn, the surgeon asked, “Are you planning to have more children?” — “Singularity” by Caitlin Gorman
Baseball practice was nearly over when the car jumped the park’s sidewalk. — “Practice” by Don Kraemer
We sit side by side in the silent waiting room. — “Kindred” by Grace Halden
I love going to the movies, especially as I’m now old enough to go to a Saturday afternoon matinee by myself. — “The Matinee” by Shana Aisenberg
I wake with a start. — “Freight Train” by Jane Silverman
i wake from a nightmare, face glistening with sweat, you beside me, the rise and fall of our hands, pressed above your heart, a momentary peace before the dream returns, causes me to dig my nails into your stomach when i try to push him off my chest. — “in bed together” by Elliot Gray Boodhan
I’m in Asda, three days before Christmas, when my sister texts to say she’s in hospital. — “Not a Prayer” by Steph Lay
The CBD oil is three years out of date. — “Ghabrahat (Nervous)” by Mridula Morgan
My charismatic friend M- writes stories on a camcorder. — “Visionary” by K Roberts
I will get there too late, but I don’t know this yet, nor do I know I’ll never see the hospital bed, or the chair beside the bed, the chair where my sister sits, keeping a constant hand on him, skin whispering to skin. — “Nonstop Flight” by Kevin Grauke
The hand surgeon, unexpectedly hot, reminds me of Nate from Six Feet Under, which I’ve been bingeing for weeks. — “McDreamy” by Abby Alten Schwartz
It's 3:30 and the ship is still docked. — “Embarkation” by Tanita Love
A tiny finger softly traces craters dotting the crook of my right arm as we wait for the summer camp bus. — “Scarring” by Sheryl Stein
Two hours to build the fort, which stood for just five minutes. — “Trading Time” by Kyle Hina
Under the table, I sip Christmas-bulb-green liquid from a sparkling chalice being passed around with giggles and hushes. — “Crème de Menthe” by Meredith Kasabian
Banishing my family to the other side of the door, I marinated in vinegar-flavoured anxiety as the timer-digits on my lock screen gradually morphed into zeroes.—“Exam Score” by Anna Oh
Subscribe
To receive our Weekly Digest (all stories published that week), email susanna@fiveminutelit.com with subject line: Digest. To receive notifications for our monthly newsletter, email susanna@fiveminutelit.com with subject line: Newsletter.
