Hi, Fivers:
Several of you have asked for a list of who we’ve featured in our “Submissions Spotlight” section (below). Voila!
Want micromemoirs in your in-box? We’ll send you a week’s worth of stories at the end of each week; email me (susanna@fiveminutelit.com) with the subject line: Digest. Thanks!
Susanna and the Team at Five Minutes
Goodbye February
Thank you again to our February readers Christi Byerly, Tenley Cederholm, Gina de Mendonca, LuLu Grant, Lesléa Newman, CT Moon, Maria Ordovas-Montanes, Jennifer Stark, and Huina Zheng. They read and scored nearly 60 pieces this month. (Our editorial team is busy at work on January!)
Hello March
Melissa Flores Anderson’s (“Mommy Dovey”) creative work has been published in swamp pink, Chapter House, ELJ Editions, and HAD. Her full-length short story collection "All and Then None of You" is out September 2025 (Cowboy Jamboree). She is a reader/editor for Roi Fainéant Press.
Sara Bednark (“Time”) loves living in Portland, Oregon, her cats Luna and Milo, reading, hiking in old-growth forests with River and Rob, anything orange, going to the ocean, and finding the perfect words to convey mood, setting, and beauty. She's had a few short pieces published in some really cool online publications, but would love to see the title of her now-completed novel etched in gold on the spine of a well-worn book.
Tenley Cederholm has lived in Salem, Massachusetts, her whole life. She loves reading all genres, especially horror, but writing is her passion. She also has a love for interviewing, music, and fashion design. She hopes to one day be a journalist and a singer. Tenley is Five Minutes’ intern for the month.
Sarah Hare (“Worn Love”) is a writer living in Southern Indiana. Her work has been published or is forthcoming in Southeast Review, River Teeth’s Beautiful Things, Mutha Magazine, and Five Minutes.
David Margolin (“The Bloodhound”), a resident of Portland, Oregon, enjoys writing comedy, as in “Table Manners” (R U Joking?), “Showdown” (Little Old Lady), and “Wishful Thinking” (Witcraft). He is often nostalgic, as in “Teabags” (Memoir Magazine), “The Toys of My Youth” (Bewildering Stories), and "The Bloodhound” (Five Minutes), but he can be grim, as in “The Outing” (Children, Churches and Daddies), “Brain Raid” (Freedom Fiction Journal), and “The Audience” (Akpata Magazine). He posts on davidmargolin.substack.com/.
Jenn McKee (“What It’s Worth”, “Postmortem”) is a Michigan-based journalist/arts critic/essayist (and part-time bookseller) with bylines in The Washington Post, Good Housekeeping, Well+Good, Next Avenue, Shondaland, Scary Mommy, and more. She has two daughters, two cats, and one husband, whom she met while playing in the Michigan Marching Band’s trombone section.
Nina Miller (“Evening Rounds”, “Elephantween”) is an Indian-American physician, épée fencer, and creative who made the Wigleaf Top 50 for 2024. She loves writing competitions and drinking chai. Find her flash and thoughts on writing within Flash Fusion, an anthology by Dahlia Books. Find her @ninamiller.bsky.social and her published pieces at ninamillerwrites.com.
Elita Suratman (“Sweet Blood”) is a Singapore native working on a cross-continental memoir on her flyway toward self-identity. Excerpts published in Cutbank, Beautiful Things, Five Minutes, Beyond Words, and Herstry. She enjoys jigsaw puzzles with her husband and is never without a stash of Gardetto’s. elitasuratman.com
As always, Founding Reader Bobbi Lerman, Managing Editor Maria S. Picone, and Editor Susanna Baird are reading.
High Fives
Congratulations …
— to Rita Pomade for publishing The King’s Conniption and the audio version of Seeker: A Sea Odyssey
— to Mark Hendrickson for publishing “Picture the Universe” and “The Nearest Thing to a Straight Path” with Unlost Journal
— to Nina Miller for publishing “A Spy of a Certain Age” with The Hooghly Review
— to Theodore Wallbanger for publishing “SHROOMSGIVING” with DUMBO Press
— to Lori Cramer for publishing “Wee Waitress” with Eunoia Review
— to Jim DeFilippi for publishing The Champagne Undertow: A Fourth Dimension Whodunit
— to Bobbi Lerman for publishing "Hitchhiking in Israel" with A Certain Age
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.
Submissions Spotlight: Hippocampus Magazine
Hippocampus Magazine publishes interviews, memoir excerpts, reviews, and more. With a commitment to “entertain, educate and engage writers,” the online magazine publishes six issues a year aiming to help writers better their skills and create interesting nonfiction. To submit memoir excerpts and personal essays go here. To submit flash creative nonfiction go here.
Visit past Submissions Spotlights for more inspo. Know a journal Newsletter Editor Kate should highlight? Email susanna@fiveminutelit.com, subject line “Submissions Spotlight Idea.” Must publish nonfiction.
Prompts
Inspired by our February pieces.
dorm room • so hot • small spoon • traffic • crescendo • goblins • nail file • ironic • beard • fifth grade • tinted • check-in • fortune teller • remedy • cookies • cocktail dress • haddock • duet • handlebars • landlord • comped • cockroach • helmet
Lines & Links
Every first line from February:
Steeped in my English major but flirting with medicine, I sat on my dorm room floor and listened through the phone to my father’s cynical perspective on being a doctor. — “Call and Answer” by Rebecca Ingalls
I take a hit and remember why D.A.R.E. exists. — “The Blush” by Bella Perez
We’ve just indulged in Lebanese—lamb, chicken, chocolate mousse we devoured with small spoons—and we’re almost leg to leg, sipping cocktails in a candlelit lounge. — “Whisky & Flames” by Michelle La Vone
It’s too hot for a helmet, but, zooming through Allahabad’s lawless traffic, my bicycle racing sixteen-wheeler trucks, I’m navigating Google Maps with one hand, readjusting my N95 dustmask with the other. — “Die Another Day” by Amita Basu
I ease the pressure to coax the string to fuller resonance. — “The Siren” by Kellie Brown
“I rolled a six.” — “Tent Boy” by Dylon Medeiros
PLOP. — “Saved” by Vicki Leigh
I can still smell the gasoline, feel the airbags deploy, and the crushing weight of the metal pinning me down. — “Fireworks” by Yolanda Ampomah
Can I touch your beard? — “Just a Touch” by Finnian Burnett
On Valentine’s Day, a group of fifth grade girls wave at her in the library. — “With Love” by Salena Casha
When the garbage man rides by, I pull up my top. — “Look at Me” by Aimee LaBrie
I wheeled into the Lufthansa check-in line two hours early behind a bald, sixty-something dude decked out entirely in Patagonia-wear. — “Check-in Karma” by Colby Loucks
The pub owner wanted more customers, so he let a fortune teller set up her table behind a beaded curtain in the corner. — “What She Said” by Pamela Bloomfield
Most nights, my toddler rejects sleep. — “Wide-Eyed” by Susanna Blagrove
Someone brushes past, dropping, “Hey,” in my ear and, I discover, mint chocolate Milano cookies in my hand. — “Mint Milanos” by Lara Peterson
“What is it?”— “Flush” by Arianna Smith
After the stop-and-fix baths, my father enters the kitchen. — “This Fish” by Paula Finn
The first thing I do when I get on the ice is ask. — “Icebreakers” by Tiffany Kung
Her knees, grazing the handlebars as she sits. — “Carousel” by Jennifer Stark
Dong dong. — “Rent” by Wenna Li
I watch her from across the café. — “Life Goals” by Michele Rule
“Guess what’s in my hand?”— “Bug Lover” by Natalie Wong
At first, I resisted and pulled away. — “Gravity” by Katherine Briccetti
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