Hi, Fivers:
—Thanks to everyone who sent newsletter insight. Sounds like Substack is the way to go! We’ll transition after our September event.
—We’ve had questions about links and numbers. Most social media outlets (with the exception of Bluesky) suppress posts with links, so for this reason we’ve stopped including them in social media posts. We’re adding them to the images, so you can find them, but it’s also an easy formula: fiveminutelit.com/the-title-of-the-piece.
As for numbers, they’re not a super accurate picture of how many eyes get on your stories, but we’ll share them anyway, way down at the end, and if people find them helpful, we’ll make it regular.
The rest of the good stuff below!
Susanna and the editorial team at Five Minutes
Goodbye July
Thank you again to our July readers, Marie Anderson, Lisa K. Buchanan, Victor Carreão, Steph Lay, Shama, Sheryl Stein, and Wesley Thornett. They read and scored more than 50 pieces this month! (The editorial team is at work on June.)
Hello August
Shana Aisenberg (“The Matinee”) is an acoustic musician, music teacher, composer, and writer. She often writes about her lived experience of being trans, non-binary. shanasongs.com band website stringequinox.com Facebook: shana.aisenberg
Victor Carreão is an English Language Arts teacher in Brazil. He likes learning about languages, reading, writing, and stargazing. He has recently finished his PhD in Linguistics.
Caitlin Gorman (“Singularlity”) teaches writing 1:1 to middle and high school students. In her writing and her everyday life, she thinks a lot about the personal politics of parenting and partnering. She lives in Santa Barbara with her partner of nearly three decades and their nine-year-old son.
Sara Delheimer (“Birthday Cake”) is a professional science writer and an emerging writer of poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction. Her personal work has been published by Five Minutes. Her professional work has received awards from the East Tennessee Society of Technical Communicators and the Outdoor Writers Association of America.
Kate Meen lives in Salem, Massachusetts. She enjoys reading books of any genre, though always appreciates a good fantasy novel. She is also fond of writing, knitting, and sewing. She hopes to one day be a journalist. Kate is the newsletter editor for Five Minutes and an editor for The Hallway.
Chelsea Utecht (“Resting”) is originally from the Pacific Northwest and now lives in Sarajevo, Bosnia with her husband, two sons, and former street dog/current princess. In addition to Five Minutes, her work has appeared in Bluestem Magazine, Shooter Literary Magazine, The Gravity of the Thing, Thirteen Bridges Review, and more
As always, Founding Reader Bobbi Lerman, Managing Editor Maria S. Picone, and Editor Susanna Baird are reading.
High Fives
Congratulations …
— to Chelsea Utecht for publishing “Suburbs” with Bluestem
— to Susan Anthony for publishing “Freedom” with Friday Flash Fiction
— to Marie Anderson for publishing “Epiphany” with 4LPH4NUM3R1C from Zoetic Press
— to Mark Hendrickson for publishing “The Beginning/The End” with SWING
— to Jeanine DeHoney for publishing This Sunday My Daddy Came to Church with Sleeping Bear Press
— to Tammy Komoff for publishing “The Midnight Commuter” with Abyss & Apex
— to Thaddeus Rutkowski for publishing “On My Way” with Denver Quarterly
— to Heather Sweeney for publishing “My Body Went Through A Massive Change In My 40s. I Didn't Know What Had Really Happened Until Much Later” with Huffpost
— to Amanda Gibson for publishing “First Flight” with October Hill Magazine
— to Jeff Kennedy for publishing “An Important Inflight Announcement” with The Gorko Gazette
— to Shoshauna Shy for publishing “Birth Records Sealed” with Rockvale Review and “Plugs & Sockets” with The Penmen Review
— to Laura Besley for publishing sum of her PARTS with V. Press
—to Jen Machajewski for publishing “Dad’s Book List” with The Keepthings
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: Villain Era
Villain Era is dedicated to publishing “the petty vendetta, the enduring grudge, the annoying inconvenience.” Accepting multiple submissions (nonfiction, fiction, poetry) and up to ten pages of writing, Villain Era wants to hear your revenge stories. Submit!
Visit past 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 July pieces.
on your mark • green • the clinic • so pretty • halt • adopt • adopt • school parking lot • don’t want to • hot fries • maple • spell broken • vibrates worryingly • crutches • steep hills • delete • speaker • California King • hours • piece of thread • sputters and growls • off-campus party
Lines & Links
First lines from July. If you don’t want to miss a piece, sign up for our Weekly Digest. Email susanna@fiveminutelit.com, subject line: Digest.
“On your mark . . . set . . . BANG!”— “Breakthrough” by Alana Moore
We were heading north on I-95 in my little green Fiesta, Dad’s head grazing the passenger-seat ceiling. — “Are You Happy?” by Emily Wyatt
They flocked to the clinic after Saving Private Ryan, grizzled veterans awash in fifty-year-old memories. — “Movie Trauma” by William W. Campbell
You’re so pretty.—“Five Minutes” by Naya Torrecampo for The Hallway
Back in my synagogue after too long for a bar mitzvah. —“Masquerade” by Sophie Kessler for The Hallway
The Ridge Street bus to Nichols Junior High halted abruptly, sending those of us perched on seats sideways to the floor. — “White Jeans” by Shoshauna Shy
After years of failed attempts to conceive, Ling adopted the baby her relative didn’t want. — “Advice” by Huina Zheng
In the school's parking lot, I'm a bull in a china shop. — “The Minotaur” by Kendra Cardin
I don’t want to get up. — “Step by Step” by Kai Delmas
Six flimsy boxes, ten McNuggets each, and hot fries?—“McNugget Family” by Sienna Lew for The Hallway
The aroma of maple burning came sweet to me with unexpected warmth one subzero December night. — “Woodsmoke” by Beth Kanell
I celebrated that your spell was broken, then you sent me a photo of you in Budapest. — “Credit: Unknown” by Tamim Khalanj
The ancient Cessna has rusty holes where rivets should be and vibrates worryingly as we ascend over cornfields. — “Skydiving” by Tammy Komoff
So useless, those crutches Alex got for her knee surgery and passed onto Gabriel after his fateful fall. — “So Useful” by Evan Deign
My old septuagenarian legs plod up the steep hills in Golden Gate Heights, my old octogenarian dog Bruno by my side. — “We Are Old” by Eliza Mimski
My thumb hovers over the delete icon. — “Mornin’” by Susanna Blagrove
“You’re so Vain” by Carly Simon plays on the speaker in our kitchen while my mom and I prepare Thanksgiving dinner. — “Only Now” by Lauren Woodruff
The California King seems miles across in the cold nights without my husband. — “Hollow Shell” by David Guerra
My daughter was fourteen hours old when she stopped breathing, her lips a dusky blue. — “Breathe” by Rachel Fleming
My grandmother wrapped my thumb with a piece of thread, the tip of my finger growing redder with each turn of the fiber. — “Remedy” by Sua Im
This is not desire, a hot and burning ache that sputters and growls. —“Crush” by Maisie McGrane for The Hallway
Off-campus party junior year. — “Fake I.D” by Katherine Briccetti
July by the Numbers
published micros: 18
published micros on The Hallway: 4
submissions: 52
eyes on micros via Instagram: 19,000 views; 2,700 accounts reached
eyes on micros via Facebook: 4,827 views
eyes on micros via fiveminutelit.com: 1,700
eyes on micros via Weekly Digest (subscription): 39
If this was useful, drop susanna@fiveminutelit.com a note and we’ll include it again.
