Hi, Fivers:
Contest finalists and winner coming soon!
We have reading slots open starting in a few months; email susanna@fiveminutelit.com to join us.
Keep writing! Keep submitting!
Susanna and the Team at Five Minutes
Goodbye December
Thank you again to our December readers, Julia Clebsch, Molly Freedenberg, Baylee Less-Eiseman, Amanda Le Rougetel, Samantha Rice, Claire Stegman, Ana C. H. Silva! They read and scored 85 pieces this month! (Our editorial staff is processing November, and our contest judge is wrapping up their scoring.)
Hello January
Laura Barr (“The Heist”) is a micro-essayist, poet, and teacher. Her debut collection, Linger: 21 Micro Essays on Love and Leave Taking, explores themes of love and loss. Her work appears in Five Minutes and her Substack "In Brief." Laura lives in Colorado with her partner, Robert, and their cat, Henry.
Erica M. Dolson (“NCAA Finals, 2016”) teaches in the English Program and directs the Creative Writing Minor at Elizabethtown (Pennsylvania) College. She loves her dog and the beach.
Jay Heltzer (“Haircut”, “This is the Way”) writes humorous speculative fiction and microfiction. When he’s not drafting his second novel about the Mississippi Blues and dealing with the devil, Jay can be found hanging out at the #5amWritersClub or playing bass trombone around Washington, D.C., which is a whole different story. Instagram: @JayHeltzer
Abdulrahim Jamil (“Minivan”) is a man with a trove of half finished writing projects, an incurable obsession with mystery, and a weakness for beautiful sunsets.
Michelle La Vone (“Daydreams”) is a Nashville native who loves writing micromemoir and flash nonfiction. In her spare time, she designs stickers, socks, and other little things for her whimsical brand and travel blog, doodlemaus.
Natalie Meyer is currently working towards her English B.A. and spends any free time writing, drawing, and editing for the literary magazine at her school. When she isn’t on campus, she can be found playing Dungeons & Dragons or obsessing over butterflies in her hometown outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Natalie is joining Five Minutes as an editorial intern this month.
Jennifer Mills Kerr (“Because of You”) is an educator, poet, and writer who lives in Northern California. She has work upcoming in The Inflectionist Review and Neologism Poetry Journal. Connect with Jennifer through her Substack newsletter, Poetry Inspired.
Huina Zheng (“Different Mothers,” “Conflict”), with her Distinction M.A. in English Studies, is a college essay coach and an editor. Her stories appear in Baltimore Review, Variant Literature, and more. Nominated three times for both the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net, she lives in Guangzhou, China with her family.
As always, Founding Reader Bobbi Lerman, Managing Editor Maria S. Picone, and Editor Susanna Baird are reading.
High Fives
Congratulations …
— to Apple An for publishing Mother of Red Mountains: A Novel of a Woman's Journey Through Revolutionary China with Voices Heard Publishing, LLC
—to Nia Mahmud for publishing For the Best with Bottlecap Press
— to Wendy K. Mages for publishing “Wise Words” with Kelp Journal
— to Beth Kanter for publishing “Revision” with New Flash Fiction Review
— to Mark Hendrickson for publishing “Long-Term Unemployment” with Vestal Review
— to Ian Li for publishing “Light of My Life” with Astrolabe
Head to our Contributor Updates page to share your good news. If we missed shouting out a piece of your good news, please remind us.
Opportunities
Editorial Intern: Know a high school or college student who loves to write and read? We’d love to have them join our reading team for a month. Email susanna@fiveminutelit.com.
Are you running a contest, reading for another journal, offering a class? Let our newsletter readers know here. Email susanna@fiveminutelit.com with the subject line “Opportunities.”
Submissions Spotlight: *82 Review
Star 82 Review is an “independent art and literature, online and print magazine that highlights words and images in gemlike forms.” They love short, and welcome submissions of one or two CNF or fiction pieces of 750 words or less, or up to ten CNF or fiction pieces of 50 words or less. Star 82 Review also welcomes word + image submissions, art, erasure text, collage poems and what the editor calls “hidden gems.” All the details at the review’s submissions page.
Have a journal our Newsletter Editor Kate should highlight? Email susanna@fiveminutelit.com, subject line “Submissions Spotlight Idea.” Must publish nonfiction.
Prompts
Inspired by our December pieces.
chain smoke • home country • what you’re in for • unsuspecting • hike • protest • remarry • home from college • Friday • completely undone • fumbling • pool table • dance studio • greenhouse • pine needles • burning scent • compulsively • slide
Lines & Links
Every first line from December:
My grandmother chain-smoked Virginia Slims, the long, white, pleasingly perfect cylinders a permanent fixture in the corner of her mouth. — “Smoke and Stain” by Stacy Bias
We waited for our flight out of my home country. — “The Departure” by K.G. Song
“Whatchu you in for?” she asked. — “Break” by Donna Woods
The first time the Gulf waters rise to lick my unsuspecting son’s ankles, he loses his balance. — “Beachcombing” by Callie Dean
The hike had lasted four hours already. — “Adventure” by Elaina H
“Aren't you coming for the protest?” — “The Protest” by Abdurahiman Noushad
“Do you think you’ll remarry?” — “Heading North” by Nancy Hesting
I sit at our tall dining room table, home from college. — “Pão Doce” by Ana C. H. Silva
Friday, 2 a.m. — “Stranger/Angel” by Gina de Mendonca
You can’t tell from the photo, but I was completely undone. — “Smiles” by Ian Owens
While the others switch partners, we stay together, working on our steps, fumbling and laughing. — “Salsa Lessons” by Suzanne Roberts
My grandfather taught me, leaning over his pool table, cigar stuck in his teeth as he squinted at the ball. — “How to Play” by Christina Kapp
They enter the dance studio in an energetic buzz—tiny humans in pink leotards with bulging little bellies. — “Tiny Dancers” by Patti Jo Amerein
Trusted watering can in hand I approach my greenhouse. — “Stolen Tomatoes” by Joel Bryant
Pine needles. — “Pine Water” by Kate Hartikka
A burning scent signals me to turn towards the stove. — “Toaster Problem” by Maria Ordovas-Montanes
After Michael died by suicide I began compulsively lying to strangers. — “Psychosis, 2024” by Joanna Acevedo
The game starts, as it always does, on the mulch by the back slide. — “Freeze” by Salena Casha
Subscribe
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