As we learned on Twitter last week, writing prompts are very bad (or… necessary and good? If you don’t know what I’m talking about, I am so jealous of you). So, this is not a writing prompt, but a simple question: Who among us will write a short story about the inner lives of the midcentury mannequins who will be filling the tables at a luxury Virginia restaurant while social distancing measures mandate that it operate at 50% capacity?

According to Washingtonian, the three-Michelin-starred Inn at Little Washington hopes to reopen at the end of the month, with 50% of its tables occupied by mannequins outfitted in 1940s-era costumes. Even better: “Servers will be instructed to pour them wine and to ask them about their evening.”

Once again, this is not a writing prompt. But I would also settle for a poem.

Jessie Gaynor

Jessie Gaynor

Jessie Gaynor is a senior editor at Lit Hub whose writing has appeared in McSweeney's, The New Yorker, The Paris Review, and elsewhere. Her debut novel, The Glow was published by Random House in 2023. You can buy it here.