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 Horror

My husband and I lounged on the couch watching YouTube highlights from Stanley Kubrick’s movie The Shining. Images flashed on our TV screen of the maze, the twins, elevator purging a tide of blood, followed by multiple formats of typeface repeating “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” Wendy’s fingers scrambled through the pages on Jack’s desk as she discovered her husband had completed a full manuscript comprised of a single ten-word sentence encapsulating his madness. Without glancing over to me, my husband said, “That’s why I never look over your shoulder to read what you write.”

An aging writer emerging from a long period of dormancy, Karin Round lives and works north of Boston.

Words of Wisdom

Nick at Nite