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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

Oct 4
Oct 4 Making the Cut

Chase Troxell

Dad held up the envelope with one word printed on it: Yes!

Oct 3
Oct 3 Released

Jennifer Gippel

We sat on a park bench, chatting about our grown children.

Sep 30
Sep 30 Tightrope

Mridula Morgan

Sugar rush plus pucker from the sour.

Sep 29
Sep 29 Kindness

Emily Hall

The old man hands me his phone.

Sep 26
Sep 26 Dad's Trombone

Albert DeGenova

Piece by piece, my small hands carefully fit together the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen . . .

Sep 25
Sep 25 Earliest Memory

Fiona M Jones

I am two years old.

Sep 23
Sep 23 Lifespan

Nicole Irizawa

The stoop light still worked, but had begun blinking and flashing like a disco-era strobe light.

Sep 22
Sep 22 Deleted

Katie Veltum

Three weeks after my father died we held a burial ceremony followed by a late lunch at a kitschy chain bistro.

Sep 19
Sep 19 Sun Pictures

David Lowe

We were tense, we hadn’t spoken all day.

Sep 18
Sep 18 Floating

Karen Webber

House to half, then to black. Barbara Cook glides onstage . . .

Sep 16
Sep 16 Countdown

Le Nga Phan

Annabelle and I sit in her sunny backyard, sipping fresh lemonade, reminiscing about our twelve years working at nature parks.

Sep 15
Sep 15 Reunion

Lisa Conquet

I remember that reunion. It was cocktail hour, everyone in their finery.

Sep 12
Sep 12 Fishin' Luck

M.D. Smith

My grandpa and I sat in his rowboat on a blistering hot summer day with cane poles in the water.

Sep 9
Sep 9 McNugget Family

Sienna Lew

Six flimsy boxes, ten McNuggets each, and hot fries?

Sep 8
Sep 8 Lunch Money

Maggie Juliano

In the vending machine’s glare, I weighed my options.

Sep 5
Sep 5 Time to Rethink

David Ledrick

I watched holes bloom on the target, nowhere near where I aimed.

Sep 4
Sep 4 The Double

Yelena Furman

This time, someone emails to subpoena records of my supposed coworker.

Sep 3
Sep 3 Afternoon Sun

Debdutta Pal

The phone rings once before her slender fingers cradle the receiver.

Sep 2
Sep 2 Guppies

Kathy Lynn Carroll

“It’s time.” I know exactly what Dad means and jump up, abandoning my dolls.

Aug 29
Aug 29 Big Break

Brian Cox

I am nineteen and newly arrived in Manhattan to become a writer.

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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, head to Substack!
To receive our weekly digest, containing the week’s stories, email susanna@fiveminutelit.com with the subject line: Digest.

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