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

Writing Center

There’s a sneeze guard that separates each tutor and student. It’s a piece of plastic with a slit on the bottom that allows only papers to be slipped through. These barriers protect us from each other and any virus that we carry. Right now, I lose sight of the student in front of me because the reflection of another dances ghostlike on the guard’s surface. It’s hard not to focus on what’s behind. But the job’s to take what’s before you, the pieces of another person’s work, and to somehow help them craft a better version, despite all the walls.

Frederick Charles Melancon lives in Mississippi with his wife and daughter. Find him on Twitter and Instagram @fcmwrite.

Bus Stop

DiMaggio