Send us your 100-word piece about five minutes in your life and we’ll consider it for publication.

FIVE MINUTES EXPLORES FIVE MINUTES OF A LIFE IN ONE HUNDRED WORDS. FIVE MINUTES IS EDITED BY SUSANNA BAIRD, WITH EDITORIAL SUPPORT FROM BOBBI LERMAN AND MAY’S GUEST EDITORS ROBERTA BEARY, ESTELLE ERASMUS, POOJA JOSHI, NIA MCCASH, AND VINCE PUZICK.


We asked, you guys answered. This time we switched it up a little bit, so we're bringing you the community's top picks for the strange, bold, and experimental.

Want to check out our previous crowdsourced themed lists? We've un-paywalled them for you guys, so get them before they're gone.
Part 1: https://www.chillsubs.com/lists/cool_kids_3
Part 2: https://www.chillsubs.com/lists/Cool_kids_2
Part 3: https://www.chillsubs.com/lists/cool_kids_pt3
Part 4: https://www.chillsubs.com/lists/cool_kids_4

Where Our Favorite Weirdos Are Sending Their Writing

These magazines have the fastest response times, so you won't be left hanging for months. No more endless waiting. Just, you know, regular waiting.

Literary Magazines with the Fastest Response Times

Explore the all-time most popular nonfiction literary magazines. These outlets have been influential for writers of essays, memoirs, and nonfiction.

Most Popular Nonfiction-Only Literary Magazines of All Time

Find out the all-time most submitted-to nonfiction literary magazines. These publications are the go-to for writers of creative nonfiction.

Most Submitted-To Nonfiction-Only Literary Mags of All Time

Five Minutes Lit

• Piece should be 100 words. Not 99. Not 101.

     • Title should be 15 characters maximum, including spaces. Submittable won't count, so you need to.

     • There should be an identifiable moment (approx. five minutes) that’s the crux of the piece.

     • We don’t publish: 

     —poetry or fiction
     —retellings of dreams

     —retellings of things you imagined

     —retellings of things you saw without any reference to you/your response (we want you in the piece!)

     —erotic memoir

     —pieces containing graphic violence

     —pieces from the perspective of abusers

     —poetry or fiction, though we are interested in poetic prose and memoir masquerading as fiction

     —pieces which overtly promote a theological or political ideology

     —pieces in which you tell us someone else’s memory as told to you

     —pieces that contain hate speech

     —slurs.

     • Each piece should be formatted without line breaks; one block of text, not multiple, short paragraphs.

     • -We are receiving many (beautiful) submissions about the last time a writer saw a beloved person, about putting a pet to sleep, and about the quiet moments in the morning before the day starts. Due to the high number of submissions on these themes, these pieces are less likely to receive acceptances. We challenge you to take risks with your voice, your structure, your chronology … anything that might set your piece apart.

     • Please submit one piece at a time. Please wait until you hear back to submit another. If we accept your piece, we ask that you wait until it runs to submit again. If we reject your piece, you may submit another piece the following month.

     • We are committed to inclusivity and strongly encourage submissions from marginalized voices.

     • Simultaneous submissions welcomed.

     • We do not publish previously published pieces, including those shared on your blog.

     • We try to send out decisions within three months; if we haven’t responded to your submission in three months, feel free to contact us.

     • Those who track submissions via Duotrope, find us there.
• We reserve the right to publish your piece first. We are happy to have your piece published again elsewhere if 1) you wait 30 days (this includes running the piece in full on your own sites and social media); 2) it runs with a note that it first appeared in Five Minutes; and 3) you let us know. We also reserve the right to read your Five Minutes piece aloud at a Five-Minutes related event.
• Five Minutes doesn't pay for publication.

  • We publish four-five days a week. When we accept your piece, we will give you a general idea of when your piece will run.

  We can’t wait to read your Five Minutes!

2026 Submissions

CONTESTS (guidelines below)
1. Into the Wild
2. Inheritance
3. Then I Remembered Where I Had Seen That Face Before
4. A Watery World
5. Glitz
6. Lie to Me
7. Songs, Sounds, and Voices  8. Sting
9. Broken  1
0. Five-Minute Noir
11. Loss
12. Music Box
13. Fraught Firsts
14. Friends and Friendship
15. Out of Range
16. Unusual Vacations
17. The Ordinary That Wasn’t
18. Exceed Expectations
19. Hope
20. Ripe
21. Care
22. Intersections
23. Praise Rain
24. The Joy in the Unseen
25. Wish
26. A Time You Had to Act like Someone You’re Not
Any time between May 6 and May 31, submit to any or all of the contests/themes above. All pieces must be 100 words, must focus on a very short period of time (think five minutes), and must be centered on real events you experienced.
Winners will be announced in July and will receive $5 USD (paid via Venmo, PayPal, or Wise) and a big WOOHOO! Anyone who enters all 26 contests will be recognized as well.
Our regular Five Minutes’ guidelines apply to the contests, except:  • You may enter the contests even if you have a piece forthcoming with Five Minutes;  • High school writers may enter the contests.
Our regular submissions portal will be closed in May and reopen June 1.
FAQ:

Added as we get them.
Can I enter one piece in two contests? Nope. However, if later in May we still have categories with no submissions, we will contact contestants and invite them to double submit to those categories.

Five Minutes Lit

Highlights

About

Featured Call

2026 Submissions

Appears in collections