The GOAT PoLLove under the shadow of poverty is a story that talks about love, family pressure, poverty, betrayal, and the difficult choices that people usually make in their daily lives. The story focuses on a young Congolese woman known as Jolie, who refused to get married with a wealthy man because of the love she had for a poor man known as Mwaka and left her family to live with him. When living together with Mwaka, she faces struggles. Despite their struggles, they both hope to have a happy family. However, life does not go well as she expected. She faces heartbreak, rejection, and unexpected challenges.
No summary available.
No summary available.
No summary available.
No summary available.
After learning from the cliché "money is the root of all evil," a boy sets out to do things right. Just after his father abandons him, he looks for a job. He becomes a man at a tender age who shows compassion towards the poor. But of course it means breaking a few rules the right way. His inspiration: his poor mother, a vendor who sells tomatoes in Biwi, and a sister who looks up to him. After all, he says, "Gold makes the rules." Or does it?
A novella dedicated to everybody who was killed or censored by the complicated ways of the Islamic Republic regime. These brutal methods of murder and erasure are sometimes even carried out at the hands of seemingly ordinary people. Living under this regime of complicated suppression is like being in a relationship with an abusive father: total suppression sprinkled with the illusion of safety.
No summary available.
The Amirit Street Series is a collection of stories about the people who walk the same road while carrying completely different lives, memories, and struggles within them. Some characters become involved in one another’s lives, changing each other in unexpected ways, while others simply pass by for a brief moment, leaving behind nothing more than a glance. This series isn’t only about people; sometimes it tells the story of an animal, and other times, even of an object. All the stories in this series are set around Amirit Street, a well-known street in Herat city of Afghanistan. This series captures the quiet beauty and hidden complexity of everyday life. Every day, countless people cross this street. To most people, it may seem like ordinary commotion but to me as a writer, I believe it is a feast of stories to be discovered and shared. From my window, I watch people pass by and I imagine who they are, where they are going, what burdens they carry, and what dreams they hide behind their expressions. Slowly, I begin connecting their imagined lives to the lives of others I see on this same street. This series is built on the belief that every passerby has a story worth telling. Sometimes, all it takes is a few seconds of observation, a heart that resonates and a mind that is ready to wander into all these innocent worlds the passersby carry.
No summary available.
No summary available.
No summary available.
No summary available.
This is a series about a woman named Khorshid. The title "The Khorshid Is a Woman," translates to "The Sun Is a Woman." Khorshid represents a demographic of the poorest in Iranian society. The series highlights the lives of those who are often overlooked, like drug addicts and young girls who sell flowers on the streets and women who sell their wombs to surrogate children for the affluent in society. Through her pain and suffering, Khorshid stands resilient and determined to make the best of her circumstances.
No summary available.
No summary available.
An interplanetary expedition from Earth to Mars finds itself at risk and heading further away from the sun, as they attempt to find their way home.
No summary available.
Randy shares his movement away from a life of violence and suffering toward clarity, calm, and God.
No summary available.
Between the Lines is a mysterious story that begins with a simple invitation—one that could change everything. A forbidden book, a hidden circle, and connections mostly unspoken draw Raha step by step into a world where curiosity comes at a cost. Every page holds a new secret, every choice shifts the line between silence and sound, between what is said and what always remains between the lines. If a single choice could reveal an unseen world, would you dare to take it?
No summary available.
No summary available.
No summary available.
No summary available.
A series of poems from the swamps of Missississippi that move from crime to love to God and the burning energy for freedom.
A young woman finds her way through a dystopic society trapped in a dome; what makes her special is also what puts her life at risk.
This is a series of poems by Rostand Bondo. The poet is reflecting on his life while growing up. He remembers precious moments with his father. The birthday parties at home. Riding a bicycle. His father's hand held him. All the tiny moments. His childhood led him to manhood. As a man, he see himslef holding his son's tiny hand. Just like his father once held his hand. Through it all, he learns about hard work. He learns to smile through good and tough times.
A group of brave ants prove to the colony and their Queen that they can change their own destiny.
A young woman is imprisoned for falling in love with someone whom society tries to forbid her from loving.
No summary available.
Vincent recovers from addiction and a break-up by trying to win back the love of his love.
A novel in the deep South built by ghosts, chance, luck, the strange, and the past insisting its way into the present.
An Innocent and Accused follows Asiya, a young woman whose life is changed by an act of sexual violence. Rather than focusing only on the violence itself, the story explores the rights denied to women, victim-blaming, and the social expectations that silence women and take away their freedom to choose their own lives. Through Asiya’s struggle, the story questions a society that judges and condemns women while failing to protect their dignity, rights, and voices
In current day Iran, a young couple dreams of a home, a family, and a better life. When protests begin and war follows, hope keeps them alive. In the end, they survive the bullets, and the bombs, but holding onto hope is harder as the conflicts threaten to pull their world apart inside of an unbroken silence.
No summary available.
The story follows two old friends, Hafez and Rumi, who reunite after years of separation in a country far from the place they once called home. Both are middle-aged chefs who spent many years working side by side in the same restaurant, sharing not only a profession but also a deep friendship. At the same time, they are philosophers at heart—thoughtful observers of life who interpret the world through the lenses of food and philosophy. Together, they explore and analyze existence through what we eat, what we see, and what we think.
No summary available.
No summary available.
No summary available.
No summary available.
No summary available.
No summary available.
Ashes is a series about the lives of Afghan villagers, people who struggle with hardship and deprivation every day amid harsh winters marked by heavy snow, bitter cold, and hunger. Yet amid all inequalities and difficulties of life, they continue to dream and hope for a bright future. Each story in the series stands on its own, with its own characters and narrative. Some characters are members of the same family, while others are simply villagers whose lives unfold alongside one another in the same place and time. Each has their own life, story, and concerns, but hunger, cold, and the struggle to survive bind their fates together and make their dreams alike. In this series, ash is not the only remnant of fire, people are. Ashes is a symbol of people who are bent beneath the burden of suffering and poverty, yet never lose hope for a better tomorrow, keeping it alive in their hearts day after day.
"Farewell" at the moment of union is the bitterest word the human heart can comprehend. That moment when hope, with trembling hands, reaches out to you. When your heart quivers when you think the world is finally beautiful, that kindness finally has meaning, that you can finally breathe and be free… but just as you stretch your hands toward happiness, everything is destroyed. Farewell at the moment of union means that your life and pure dreams, just as they begin to blossom, are snatched away by harsh hands and merciless traditions. This farewell is not a single moment but holds within it thousands of broken breaths and thousands of shattered dreams. A farewell that millions of girls in Afghanistan experience every single day.
A friendly bird describes what it's like through his eyes to be captured from his home, survive the whims of a young boy, and adapt to his new situation.
No summary available.
No summary available.
No summary available.
No summary available.
No summary available.
No summary available.
No summary available.
No summary available.
No summary available.
Joesph Brown/ L. Patri compares the response from Rankin County, Mississippi prosecutors to two very different criminal cases. Through satire and examples stark enough to sound like satire (though they are real), this two-part essay exposes the extreme imbalance of the court system in Mississippi.
It was supposed to be my last night. I was heading straight to her when I noticed a little girl by a grave, clutching a dirty doll, looking completely disheveled...
A series about the practice of Khoon-bas (Blood truce through forced marriage) and child marriage.
Life goes on anyway. This is my takeaway from the twelve-day war. Living is an unstoppable war amid many conflicting feelings.
No summary available.
After receiving notice of his execution date by the State of Mississippi, Charles Ray Crawford (Chuck) used some of the precous time remaining to share some of his memories. Chuck was born and raised in Mississippi, and in this series of five posts, he reflects on his childhood, his faith that got him through more than thirty years on death row, some of the evidence in his case that troubles the prosecutors' narrative, and his experiences trying to convince his lawyers to pay attention to that evidence. Chuck was executed by the State of Mississippi on October 15, 2025.
No summary available.
No summary available.
Land of words is a place where, through a spiritual language, I attempt to narrate a lost part of the self. We, as human beings, carry multiple selves within us, but have we ever considered how these selves appear through the eyes of a writer who continuously creates other selves through words and stories? And what happens if the self that writes is rooted in misguided, misplaced, cursed, and negative emotions, forgetting its original foundations? In such a case, all the other selves it creates become tainted within its vocabulary; their joy fades, and without realizing it, the writer gives rise to a war-torn world, silencing many selves along the way. In this story, follow one of my selves, a self more real than the others, as it returns to the world of words to witness the ruins it has itself brought into being. Land of words is a place where words are human beings, born from the writer’s pen and emotions. To return the writer to the self—is that not the better choice?
No summary available.
No summary available.
No summary available.
No summary available.
No summary available.
No summary available.
No summary available.
My name had not yet become tangled with my appearance when my innocent existence, my life, was traded in the name of blood money. Even my mother, when she named me Gol Andam, never imagined that one day my eyes, my young body, would become my curse, ripping me from my carefree childhood and forcing me onto the dance floor. Damn the customs of this time—this foolish, lawless era—an era that grabbed my hand and placed it into Akhtar Gol’s. With no heed for me or my future, they made a decision for me, a decision no one stopped, no one questioned, no one even hesitated over. But this is not where my story ends. It can’t be.
I wanted to be someone else, one of the ordinary people around me who sleep when they put their heads on the pillow at night and wake up in the morning as a young person; but, inside me, a tired old woman lives. She walks along the Black Sea's coast in Samsun, Türkiye, and her past in Herat walks through her.
My friend always says "it's all gonna be memories." before every crazy adventure he wants all of us to experience. This is the first story that I could finish after many years of living in the world of art. It was a crazy adventure, writing in a foreign language, all those ideas that flowed out of my mind and the bright mirror of art which I can see the life in it. —Afrasiab Pashangpur
No summary available.
This is a series about a girl named Sahar.
No summary available.
No summary available.
No summary available.
This three-part series was written by Papy Kapend in 2023.
If your story is about a place already marked on this map, click on "Go back to the map" and click on the marker, then select “Add a new story about this place”. Otherwise, you can start by adding a new location.
Welcome! You’re now joining a polity of literature: We’re here to support your writing and your reading. We encourage you to do a lot of both, and to respect all other contributors in The GOAT PoL as your fellow writers and fellow readers.
To get started we want to know more about you: what you enjoy reading, and what you write. By answering a few questions you’ll create your own login and contributor’s page. Others in The GOAT PoL will be able to see your answers and read the writing that you upload, by visiting your Contributor’s Page.
Welcome! You’re now joining a polity of literature: We’re here to support your writing and your reading. We encourage you to do a lot of both, and to respect all other contributors in The GOAT PoL as your fellow writers and fellow readers.
To get started we want to know more about you: what you enjoy reading, and what you write. By answering a few questions you’ll create your own login and contributor’s page. Others in The GOAT PoL will be able to see your answers and read the writing that you upload, by visiting your Contributor’s Page.
