5x5 is an online literary magazine that publishes poetry and prose of no more than 500 words. Make less mean more. 

We’re looking for your very best poems. That said, since this is a journal of concise writing, please let your work be no more than one page in length. Whichever is shorter.

We are open to all kinds of poems in their myriad forms. We cleave to poems that carry both music and clarity no matter how strange the places they lead us or how surprising their leaps.

Please submit 3-5 poems. All poems should be submitted in a single document, single-spaced. Simultaneous submissions are acceptable. Please let us know when your work has been accepted elsewhere immediately. 

Wait for response to your submission before submitting again, feel free to inquire about the status of your work after 6 months. (We are a one-person editorial crew).

In short, we are looking for your very best work in 500 words or less. Show us what you can accomplish with the short-short form. Only one story is allowed per submission, and, unless otherwise requested by an editor, you should wait at least three months after a submission response to submit new work. Please use standard fonts and include a word count at the top of your document. Lengthly cover letters and summaries of your work are not necessary. Extra points if you address your work to the editor and gold stars for not addressing them by first name only. 

We’re looking for nonfiction of all varieties, including but not limited to (short) memoir, personal essays, profile/portrait essays, lyric essays, meditative essays, and journalism. Generally speaking, we want submissions that demonstrate an awareness of the connections between individual experience and that of the human condition at large. 

Additional guidelines: 

  • You’re welcome to submit up to two essays per issue (please do not submit more than two essays at a time), and, unless otherwise requested by an editor, you should wait at least three months after a submission response to submit new work
  • Simultaneous submissions are allowed, but we do ask that you notify us if your work is accepted elsewhere
  • Please wait at least three months before submitting again
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