GUM
I remember, for my first 18 years, I couldn’t fathom kissing. It was disgusting—a slimy tongue, germed-up spit, faces pointlessly plastered. But somewhere in that 19th year, I sat in the back of his car watching the ocean eat the sun. He leaned his head on my shoulder. And feeling his temple chew his gum against it, and against my head leaning back against his, I couldn’t help but imagine what his tongue was doing to it. How was it moving it around his mouth? Was it slow or steadfast? Roughly, or politely? What did it taste like?

The best flash, in my opinion, gestures at the experience of a lifetime with a microcosm of words. The premise of 'Gum' is a simple inquiry into the act of kissing, but toes the line beautifully between wonder and disgust, akin to a flirtatious dance with danger. With an image as simple as "watching the ocean eat the sun", the speaker looks outward to demonstrate both their desire and the impossibility of knowing what the kiss would feel like. I especially loved how this piece ended, with a child-like wonder, to ask not what the experience of kissing would feel like, but what the kisser's mouth would taste like. This flash piece's word choices, though small, construct a rich world for us readers to wade through. I felt every part of this work in my mouth, and I loved it.—Contest Judge Max Pasakorn

Jalen Giovanni Jones is a Black and Filipino writer from Los Angeles. His work has been supported by the Tin House Summer Workshop, the Lambda Literary Retreat, and the Kenyon Review Winter Workshop. A winner of the David Madden MFA Award for Fiction, his writing can be found/is forthcoming in The Offing, Electric Literature, Foglifter, and elsewhere. He is the Assistant Editor of the New Delta Review, an MFA candidate in Louisiana State University’s Creative Writing Program, and served as Director for the 2024 Delta Mouth Literary Festival. Find him on Instagram @jalen_g_jones, or Twitter @jalengjwrites.

Meet the Finalists

Pieces go live in February!

Amita Basu’s (“Die Another Day”) Pushcart-nominated fiction appears in 75+ venues including Penn Review and Phoebe. She’s a reader at Metaworker, sustainability columnist and interviews editor at Mean Pepper Vine, and contributing editor at Fairfield Scribes Micro. Her debut, At Play and Other Stories, is due out from Bridge House in summer 2025. amitabasu.com

Finnian Burnett (“Just a Touch”) is an author whose writing explores intersections of mental health, gender identity, disability, and life in a fat body. Their work has appeared on CBC books, in Blank Spaces Magazine, Pulp Literature, and more. When not writing or teaching, Finnian watches too much Star Trek and futilely tries to grow a garden.

Salena Casha's (“With Love”) work has appeared in over 150 publications in the last decade. Her most recent work can be found with HAD, Club Plum, and Ghost Parachute. She survives New England winters on good beer and black coffee. Subscribe to her substack at salenacasha.substack.com.

John Holmes (“Maybe”) is a past winner of The Times short story award. He likes to cycle and write—not at the same time.

Adolescent Annie Kassof (“Never Married”) received accolades on a poem from a journalist neighbor, decided she liked to express herself through words as well as art, relishing the creative process. Eventually published myriad essays including in the LA Times. Retired graphic designer; harmonica playing horse owner, Etch-A-Sketch artist, now relishes her late-in-life romance.

Michelle La Vone (“Whisky & Flames”) is a Nashville native who loves writing creative nonfiction. In her spare time, she designs stickers for her small business, doodlemaus.

Lara Peterson (“Mint Milanos”) works and plays and writes in the Colorado mountains, where she lives with her family and too many pets.

Michele Rule (“Life Goals”) is a disabled writer from Kelowna BC. Michele is published in Five Minutes, Poetry Pause, Chicken Soup for the Soul, and others. She is an associate member of the League of Canadian Poets. Michele lives in a beautiful garden surrounded by people who love her. MicheleRule.ca

Arianna Smith (“Flush”) lives in California. She shotguns fistfuls of chocolate chips when she's writing on a deadline.

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.

Meet the Judge

Max Pasakorn (he/she/they, in no particular order) is a queer writer of creative nonfiction and poetry who has lived in Thailand, Singapore and the United States. Max holds a BA in Arts & Humanities (Creative Writing) from Yale-NUS College.

Max’s debut nonfiction chapbook, A Study in Our Selves, won the OutWrite 2022 Chapbook Competition (Nonfiction) selected by Joseph Osmundson and was published by Neon Hemlock Press in 2023. Max is the winner of the 2024 swamp pink prize in Nonfiction and the 2022 Chestnut Review Stubborn Writers’ Contest in Poetry. Max’s other writing has been published or is forthcoming in venues such as Split Lip Magazine, WITNESS Magazine, Foglifter Journal, Speculative Nonfiction, SUSPECT Journal of Asian Writing and Art, Eunoia Review, Strange Horizons, Honey Literary and Chestnut Review.

Meet the Readers

Kat Abdallah (she/her) is a Palestinian-American writer, educator, and advocate for refugees. Her work has appeared in Adi Magazine, Rising Phoenix Review, The Los Angeles Review, and Welter Literary Journal. Born and raised in the Pacific Northwest, Kat is currently pursuing a PhD in creative writing at Oklahoma State University.

Susanna Baird is a writer and editor living in Salem, Massachusetts. A graduate of Grub Street’s Novel Generator, she’s published fiction, poetry, and CNF in a variety of journals. When not writing, reading, or editing Five Minutes, she helps lead a small nonprofit that gets clothing and toiletries to public school students. Susanna is the founder and editor of Five Minutes.

Gavin Garza was raised in the Institute of Basic Life Principles, a Christian cult. Today, he’s a Best-of-the-Net nominated poet and memoirist studying English at the University of California, Berkeley. His work stays rooted in Fresno, California, and can be found in MudRoom, Eucalyptus Lit, The Acentos Review, plus more.

Bethany Jarmul is an Appalachian poet and author of the flash nonfiction chapbook Take Me Home. Her debut poetry collection Lightning Is a Mother is forthcoming. Her writing was selected for Best Spiritual Literature and Best Small Fictions, and has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net, and Best Microfiction. Bethany’s “Motherhood” won third place in last year’s Fall Contest.

Bobbi Lerman is a writer of historical romance and travel essays, and is the founder of Scribbler's Ink, an online community/website offering writing tips, prompts, and workshops. Bobbi was the first Five Minutes reader and has scored every submission since the early days.

Michelle I Linder is hard at work on a supernatural thriller featuring a PI/Pacers cheerleader who can’t stop seeing ghosts. She is a graduate of the Augsburg University low-residency MFA program and a member of the Indiana Writers Center fiction group. Michelle’s “Handoff” won second place in last year’s Fall Contest (theme: Away).

Kate Meen lives in Salem, Massachusetts. 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. Kate is the newsletter editor for Five Minutes.

Damhuri Muhammad is an Indonesian-based writer and was nominated for The 2023 Pushcart Prize. His recent works have appeared in Mekong Review, 101 Words, Switch Microfiction Journal, The Icarus Writing Collective, Five Minutes, and elsewhere. He is the managing editor of Porch Literary Magazine. X handle: @damhurimuhammad

Maria S. Picone—수영—(she/her/hers) has four chapbooks, Anti Asian Bias, Adoptee Song, This Tenuous Atmosphere, and Korean Girl Ghost. Maria is the recipient of an Emerging Artist Grant from the South Carolina Arts Commission. She won Cream City Review’s Summer 2020 Poetry Prize and Salamander’s Louisa Solano Memorial Emerging Poet Award. Maria is managing editor of Five Minutes.

Sumitra Singam is a Malaysian-Indian-Australian coconut writing in Naarm/Melbourne. She travelled through many spaces to get there and writes to make sense of her experiences. She’ll be the one in the kitchen making chai (where’s your cardamom?). You can find her and her other publication credits on Twitter: @pleomorphic2

Contest is over, but you can still submit to Five Minutes! fiveminutelit.com/submissions