Susanna Baird
susannabaird.bsky.social
Susanna Baird
@susannabaird.bsky.social
Neurodivergent Word Freak, Junk Food Fiend. She/her. Editor
@fiveminutelit.bsky.social, tho views expressed here are mine alone. susannabaird.com
... five minutes of pure, unshadowed joy ... —"Trading Time" by Kyle Hina, at fiveminutelit.com ...
Two hours to build the fort, which stood for just five minutes. —"Trading Time" by Kyle Hina

https://www.fiveminutelit.com/trading-time
April 30, 2025 at 10:43 AM
... I entered my login information and scrolled ... —"Exam Score" by Anna Oh, up at fiveminutelit.com ...
April 29, 2025 at 4:23 PM
He adorably complains it’s a boring operation, my cyst will likely grow back, but says he’ll still do it if I want (I want). —"McDreamy" by @abbys480.bsky.social, found at fiveminutelit.com
The hand surgeon, unexpectedly hot, reminds me of Nate from Six Feet Under, which I’ve been bingeing for weeks. —"McDreamy" by @abbys480.bsky.social

www.fiveminutelit.com/mcdreamy
April 29, 2025 at 2:03 AM
She’s told him I am on my way, and I am. —"Nonstop Flight by
@kevingrauke.bsky.social
I will get there too late, but I don’t know this yet, nor do I know I’ll never see the hospital bed, or the chair beside the bed, the chair where my sister sits, keeping a constant hand on him, skin whispering to skin. —"Nonstop Flight" @kevingrauke.bsky.social

www.fiveminutelit.com/nonstop-flight
April 21, 2025 at 1:39 PM
When we met, I was working as a cashier in a windowless cafeteria and felt like a wilted salad. —"Visionary" by K Roberts ...
My charismatic friend M- writes stories on a camcorder. —"Visionary" by K Roberts

https://www.fiveminutelit.com/visionary
April 17, 2025 at 11:28 AM
Trazodone it is.—"Ghabrahat (Nervous)" by Mridula Morgan

fiveminutelit.com/ghabrahat-nervous
The CBD oil is three years out of date.—"Ghabrahat (Nervous)" by Mridula Morgan

https://www.fiveminutelit.com/ghabrahat-nervous
April 15, 2025 at 5:05 PM
I put a chocolate orange into my basket and I tell myself that it’s not really a prayer. —"Not a Prayer" by @stephlay.bsky.social, published at fiveminutelit.com
I’m in Asda, three days before Christmas, when my sister texts to say she’s in hospital. —"Not a Prayer" by @stephlay.bsky.social

https://www.fiveminutelit.com/not-a-prayer
April 14, 2025 at 4:56 PM
This, I felt.
I cannot submit to your chapbook contest bc if I add one more title page per your guidelines it will mess up the page numbering it took me a millennia to achieve in Microsoft Word.
April 13, 2025 at 5:19 PM
A small thing that makes me happy: People singing along to grocery store radio, not aware they're singing along to grocery store radio.
April 13, 2025 at 12:24 AM
Reposted by Susanna Baird
Just a reminder that these are the people purporting to be outraged by antisemitism on campus. www.nytimes.com/2025/04/11/u...
April 11, 2025 at 7:31 PM
. . . the rise and fall of our hands, pressed above your heart, a momentary peace . . . "in bed together" by Elliot Gray Boodhan, published @fiveminutelit.bsky.social . . .
i wake from a nightmare, face glistening with sweat, you beside me . . . —"in bed together" by Elliot Gray Boodhan

https://www.fiveminutelit.com/in-bed-together
April 11, 2025 at 8:03 PM
I am a reader & an eater & I love @newenglandtammy.bsky.social's cookbooks because they make for good reading & I love her cookbook launches because they make for good eating. Sunday we celebrated NEW ENGLAND BRUNCH & I ate all of the everything & I said HOORAY! www.globepequot.com/978149307687...
April 8, 2025 at 7:43 PM
This word person was not only heartened by the size of the crowd at Salem #handsoff, but also by all the clever signs. (Mine was a prosaic, heartfelt HANDS OFF LIBRARIES.)
April 5, 2025 at 10:32 PM
"Every night ... from the TV in the next room blared this litany of things that had never before happened ... we assumed, that those things could and would soon be undone ... that some adult or adults would arrive ... to set things right."

www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
“Love Letter”
Fiction by George Saunders: “What would you have done? I know what you will say: you would have fought. But how? How would you have fought?”
www.newyorker.com
April 4, 2025 at 1:25 PM
How are you using Bluesky? I haven't settled in. A million things in the world making me rage, but also 3 things I loved in Melissa Mogollan's OYE, just finished: Abuela's upgraded body parts; Luciana's clever digs at her sorority queen sister; how love is often expressed via quippy exasperation.
April 3, 2025 at 12:28 AM
RIP Val and also this is just a fantastic piece of writing by @taffyakner.bsky.social that I first consumed via the listen option.
Val Kilmer, the film actor who played Batman, died on Tuesday. At one point in his career, he mostly vanished from screens for a decade. In 2020, we spoke with the Hollywood movie star about it.
What Happened to Val Kilmer? He’s Just Starting to Figure It Out. (Published 2020)
Cancer has taken his voice, but the unlikeliest movie star in Hollywood history still has a lot he wants to say. (Published in 2020.)
www.nytimes.com
April 2, 2025 at 7:49 PM
I hope the writers, the poets, will find in this list endless prompts.
Agencies within the Trump administration have flagged hundreds of words to limit or avoid, according to a compilation of government documents. These terms appeared in government memos, in official and unofficial agency guidance and in other documents. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
March 10, 2025 at 1:20 PM
Reposted by Susanna Baird
I’m a part time librarian and I just want to echo what I’ve seen other librarians say recently: there is a HUGE uptick in requests for social justice, climate justice, abolition, history, etc books and I just want to say nobody is giving up the fight. If anything people are fighting harder #library
February 4, 2025 at 2:41 PM
Love my work as editor of this tiny mag, and super loved getting to tell the talented Jalen Giovanni Jones he'd won our Fall Contest. Good news, good gig. GO JALEN.
I remember, for my first 18 years, I couldn’t fathom kissing. ——"Gum" by Jalen Giovanni Jones, Fall Contest winner! Congrats! Judge Max Pasakorn said "Gum" "toes the line beautifully between wonder and disgust, akin to a flirtatious dance with danger."

https://www.fiveminutelit.com/fall-contest
January 22, 2025 at 4:18 PM