Esquire magazine did something totally awesome. I wish I had thought of it. Then again, I am not a famous old magazine, so my attempt would not have been as successful. Here’s what Esquire did:

We put 250 napkins in the mail to writers from all over the country — some with a half dozen books to their name, others just finishing their first. In return, we got nearly a hundred stories.

Esquire got napkins back from the likes of ZZ Packer, Aimee Bender, Rick Moody,Madison Smartt Bell, A.M Homes, and more! Some wrote short stories. Some wrote silly little things that may be inside jokes or stray ideas. Some wrote letters. But a lot of different kinds of writers sent napkins back to Esquire.
A couple of the writers used the napkin concept as a “prompt” such as Jack Livings’ letter of complaint about a waiter to the restaurant management or Christopher Sorrentino’s letter to a bartender from a paper-products salesman.

Check out the project here.

-Marcia