The Napkin Project (Thanksgiving Edition)

In 2007, Esquire mailed 250 cocktail napkins to writers across the country with this request: Fill the blank space with fiction. We received nearly 100 napkin stories and published them all as part of the Napkin Project.

The project had been on the shelf—in our archive, to be exact—for the past 16 years, until July 2023, when we revived it. We published additional rounds in December of that year (Holiday Edition), April 2024 (Love Stories), and July 2024 (Summer Vacation).

This is now our fifth installment, and it’s a Thanksgiving Edition.

Thanksgiving is an unusual holiday. There are no gifts or carols; its origin story is colored by tragedy; the season lasts only a few days; it’s based around a meal comprising dishes most people eat but once a year; the president pardons a turkey. It’s also freighted with memories and family drama. Hey, at least there’s a parade!

With so much material to mine, we asked five of the most electric writers around to contribute to this round of Napkin Fiction: Chuck Palahniuk, Meg Wolitzer, Daniel Lavery, Weike Wang, and Jacqueline Woodson. Each approached the assignment in their own signature style, and the results are a casserole of emotions. Their stories will break your heart, make you laugh, disturb you—you know, like most holidays.

Five writers. Five napkins. Five stories about Thanksgiving. Enjoy. —Adrienne Westenfeld, books and fiction editor

JACQUELINE WOODSONWEIKE WANGCHUCK PALAHNIUKDANIEL LAVERYMEG WOLITZER