The Modest GOAT Prize 2025
At the end of each year, the nine Reader/Advisor/Editors (RAEs) at The GOAT PoL award The Modest GOAT Prize to a number of writers whose work at The GOAT PoL was outstanding. There are many ways to stand out. A writer can create and publish exceptionally strong stories and poems; or a writer can be a talented listener and learner who consistently questions and improves their skills; a writer might devote time to helping other writers, either by contributing to The GOAT PoL workshops or by acting as a reader, an advisor, or as an editor for their peers; or a writer might carry out an ambitious project, planning and completing work on a book or a suite of stories or a collection of poems. When the RAEs are aware of these outstanding achievements, they award that writer The Modest GOAT Prize.
The Modest GOAT Prize includes public recognition and a modest award of money (with the amount calculated by dividing whatever we have available equally among those awarded that year’s prize). It’s an honor for us to work with and have a chance to recognize these writers. There are dozens or scores more writers at The GOAT PoL who also deserve the prize, but who did not receive it this year. We are especially grateful to you for your patience and fortitude as you continue working and growing in community at The GOAT PoL, and for joining in this celebration of your peers.
Here are the winners of The Modest Goat Prize 2025, listed alphabetically by first name:
Atefeh Ansari
Atefeh Ansari explores themes of love, longing, loss, grief, melancholy, and memory in her poems and stories. The majority of her work exists in the liminal space between realism and surrealism, often beginning with a simple, everyday setting that gradually unfolds into a layered, enigmatic narrative. Her stories invite readers into nuanced, intriguing scenes and dialogues where meaning is not immediately revealed but discovered through careful rereading.
The element of surprise is a recurring feature in her pieces. For example, in The Baker, as we follow the couple on their lovely day out, “through the labyrinthine bazaar, / Where beneath the torrid sun, / Vendors’ voices rose like a song, / ‘Fresh pumpkin, cheap and rich!’ / ‘Colorful fabrics, come and see!’” we almost hear the crowd’s noise, smell the fresh bread, and taste the sweetness they share. Unaware that this beautiful picture, drawn by Atefeh’s vivid imagery, is about to turn deadly, filled with screams and tears. These moments of suspense and surprise, followed by a sense of realization at the end, never fail to astonish the reader.
Atefeh has published eight stories on The GOAT PoL, so far. Whether her narratives are imaginary dialogue between characters (A Glass of Warm Milk) or her own account of life during and after the Iran-Israel war (Hot as War), she depicts them with such detail and precision that one not only reads but also feels every word. Atefeh’s unique storytelling skill, paired with her keenness for learning, makes working with her especially rewarding.
Esperance M.
Esperance M. participates both as a writer and as a reliable presence in all of our real-time gatherings. In Telegram and in our Zoom workshops (for which she wakes up in the pre-dawn, in New Zealand, to attend) Esperance is consistently supportive of her fellow writers. Of seventy workshops we’ve offered, Esperance has attended more than sixty. She is as generous in her contributions as she is skilled in her listening. As a writer and learner, Esperance takes great care to go at her own pace, never rushing ahead nor short-changing the revision process, but giving time to every exploration and experiment that she can learn from. To work with her is to witness real patience and engagement, and the serenity of a lifelong learner who is still building on the lessons conveyed by those who raised her. She appreciates the world’s complexity and its potentials and she does not waste nor overlook the many small virtues of doing one’s work with others who share our faith in the future. In January, Esperance M. completes her first three years with us. Her record of seven published stories in that time shows a steady and continuing commitment to learning through writing and reading. For all of her remarkable contributions we’re pleased to award The Modest GOAT Prize 2025 to Esperance.
Exaucé Fahamu
Exaucé Fahamu’s writing shows honesty, emotional depth, and respect for real life experiences. In Idi, my role model, Exaucé tells the life of Idi using plain, common language. Instead of exaggerating pain, the writer shows it through Idi’s daily actions, such as carrying his little sister on his back, missing school because he cannot pay the fees, and staying silent while taking care of his family. Idi comes to life as a real person in the story’s keenly observed details. One of the strongest moments is when Idi is found crying alone but does not want to explain his pain. This scene shows Exauce’s ability to show suffering without dramatizing or exaggeration. The story also talks about responsibility, poverty, childhood, and dignity in a quiet and respectful way. The ending, where Idi leaves and is never seen again, is simple but very emotional and full of hope. As an indicator of future promise and an example of ambitious aims, this story compels us to award The Modest GOAT Prize to Exaucé Fahamu.
Faiaz Dowlatzai
Faiaz Dowlatzai comes to The GOAT PoL bringing a lifetime of work in other languages and great success writing in Persian and in Swedish. To develop his abilities as a writer of English, he’s been submitting increasingly ambitious and complex stories. He displays a remarkable talent for learning from the editorial process. For Faiaz, writing is a form of exploration and discovery. His ability to integrate different styles and tones is admirable, as seen in his outstanding two-part story, An Old Oak. The language is vivid and refined, with a distinctive liveliness that comes from his restless curiosity. His stories always seem to be the start of something bigger, an intriguing mystery that, rather than being explained or resolved, is left like a seed in the reader’s mind, making us eager to encounter Faiaz Dowlatzai’s next story. It’s our hope that The Modest GOAT Prize will stimulate him to continue growing as an English-language writer and attempt projects of even greater scope.
Harriet Kapinga
Harriet Kapinga is a talented writer who has published six stories on The GOAT PoL. Kapinga is a fast learner whose work has improved immensely with every piece. Among her recently published pieces are the first three chapters of a book, titled Chronicles of Men and Women on the Streets: Those We Walk Past. Her book chronicles the real-life experiences of different men and women on the streets of Kinshasa, in the Democratic Republic of Congo. She walked the streets of Kinshasa every day, turning a blind eye to the random women who sell on the streets, the young boys who rummage the dustbins, and older men in rags. But one day their stories turned into a reality. “I had always been in a rush,” she writes, “looking ahead. Not because I had no time to chat with her. But I did not want to ask the emotional details of her story. Stopping by would mean burdening myself with her story.” In the third chapter, she tells the story of Hilda, a poor vendor of groundnuts and sweets. “That morning I set all excuses aside. I could not pretend as if I did not care anymore.” Her accounts extend to ex-soldiers, Joseph and Francis, Smart, the boy who used to draw lovely pictures in school, and Ester, who survives by selling bananas. Kapinga’s empathy turns these chapters into a vivid narrative where the streets become alive in the reader’s mind. She critiques the way that passersby act as if street people are nonexistent: “The city continues its movement as though people such as these do not exist.” Kapinga has pledged to tell their stories: “I suppose this is my task now, not to repair, but to observe and to tell their stories.” For this, we are pleased to award her The Modest GOAT Prize 2025.
Jeffrey Karl Meyer
Jeffrey Karl Meyer has been publishing personal essays on The GOAT PoL since fall of 2024. His writing is wry, witty, and often focused on finding humor—without rose-colored glasses—in the world around him. That world happens to be inside prison, on death row in North Carolina, where he has lived for nearly forty years. In Laughing Inside, he reveals the pranks that the men around him play on one another, from new-guy hazing to passing around a sock monkey named Spanky. Prison Chemistry 101 reveals some of the tricks of the trade for staying jolly in dismal circumstances, which should only be used in moderation; and in Aging Out (wherein a group of visitors “touring” death row is told that the people living there are “aging out”), Jeffrey listens quietly to the tour pass by his cell, and then comments, “We’re not aging out […] we’re fucking dying of old age.” Check out Jeffrey Karl Meyer’s Contributor’s Page for a unique perspective on North American culture. For his insightful, semi-satirical reflections on the conditions of life inside of the world’s most populated prison system, the USA, we’re pleased to award Jeffrey The Modest GOAT Prize 2025.
Mojgan Rah
From her brave and surprisingly playful first story, telling the ordeal of a med student whose Multiple Sclerosis (MS) goes undiagnosed by indifferent doctors who tell her to “go get married, or something,” to the ambitious ghost story she recently began, spanning many generations of hauntings in a a vivid setting quite similar to the world of her own parents, Mojgan has impressed us with her boldness, invention, and insatiable curiosity. She enters the realm of writing in English without fear, leaving behind the cautious self-consciousness that can make second- or third-language composition so stultifying. She’s at ease with her partial knowledge, at home with her own capacities and style, so much so that her written prose sings from the page and the characters come to life, like memories unlocked. To support her further growth and in celebration of the way she’s working now, we’re pleased to award Mojgan The Modest GOAT Prize 2025.
Tamana Yousofi
Tamana Yousofi is not only a superbly talented writer, she has been an active participant in workshops, on Telegram, and by reading her fellow writers. She is as generous in sharing her own works-in-progress and taking seriously every opportunity to work with a Reader/Advisor/Editor (RAE) and publish. She doesn’t slow down in between commissions, but continues to devote her energy and time to the community of writers who she’s joined at The GOAT PoL. Her work in English has developed steadily, as she uses each opportunity to attempt increasingly ambitious stories of wider and wider scope. She writes close to home, detailing many aspects of her native Afghan culture, while also venturing deep into foreign worlds, imagining characters and settings beyond her own life experience. In hopes that we will inspire her to take ever greater risks in her writing, we’re happy to award The Modest GOAT Prize to Tamana Yousofi.
