I often rant about my love for William James — philosopher, psychologist, fellow Masshole, and fellow depressed motherfucker. My friends have gotta be tired of my devotion to this guy who’s not only a dead white guy, but has the audacity to have a building at Harvard named after him. (At least it’s a weird brutalist building).

So, I am taking my rants to you, my adoring (?) public. Namely, I want to share one of his best-known quotes:

“Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.”

Most days, it’s impossible to feel that you’re making a difference. Especially if you’re a writer toiling away countless hours alone hunched over a laptop rearranging sentences in a paragraph or flinging your words out into the ether to get nary a response. And yet, here I am and here you are, ravenous for words and the sense of connection only they can bring.

I’ve been thinking a lot about who benefits from us feeling powerless. If we cry uncle and accept that everything in our world is completely beyond our control, doesn’t that smooth the path for evil assholes? What if instead of throwing up our hands and sinking into a Netflix binge so deep that the computer asks “Are you still there?” and you aren’t even sure how to answer, we focused on telling our stories, caring for each other, and doing whatever we can to make the world more livable and joyous. It can’t hurt, right?

With that in mind, I present to you a smorgasbord of work by brilliant outsiders. You may notice that this issue is quite a bit longer than our previous issues. That’s because we were bowled over by the amount of talent and beauty that came into the Whiskey Tit queue these past few months. We can’t stress enough what a privilege it is to have these writers trust us with their work and bring it to all of you.

And if that wasn’t enough for you, we’ve also got images from the talented Linda Rizzo in this issue accompanying each piece.

Happy Reading,
Meagan Masterman