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

The Interview

I sigh, pushing all the air out of my lungs. My interviewer has just emailed me that his wi-fi is terrible, and that our video call will now be a simple, old-fashioned phone call. So there’s no one to see that I’ve put on pants—pants that are cinching a little too tightly around my waist. I’ve swapped my oversized nightshirt for a collared polo. My makeup job is decent, and I’ve gone around my head with a flat iron, smoothing out every strand of hair. And now no one’s going to see except my cat, who doesn’t care anyway.

Stefanie Fair-King loves coffee, books, cats, and Oxford commas. She has degrees in English, philosophy, and liberal arts. She and her husband live in Texas.

A Bad Trip

Liquor Stop