Golnaz Tavakolian, born in 1973, is an author of fiction. She studied theoretical economics and spent nearly three decades teaching English. But her story does not begin with a degree or a profession. It begins with books.
She has been reading and putting words on paper since adolescence. What started as an interest gradually became something closer to a necessity—a way of giving shape to things that stay inside us and do not always have a clear language of their own. Poetry has been part of her life since those early years, and she continues to pursue it alongside fiction.
Golnaz believes in the miracle of creation: the strange and beautiful fact that we can bring something into existence simply by putting words together. A character, a scene, a life, a feeling. And perhaps what is even more remarkable is what happens afterwards, when something you have created leaves you and enters someone else’s life—perhaps making them see something differently, stirring something in them, or simply making them feel a little less alone.
Perhaps that is why she would one day like to create a workshop where you do not have to be an author to take part.
A place for people who simply want to put something of themselves into words.
She believes the pleasure of creating should not belong only to those who make a profession of it. Putting your thoughts into words can be a way of getting closer to yourself, letting out what you have carried inside for years, and turning something deeply personal into something that exists outside you. You do not have to become an author. You do not even have to be particularly good at it. You only have to experience what it feels like to create something that did not exist before.
Three collections of short stories have been published: The Thirteenth Month (2018), Whoever Stays Awake Does Not Die (2023), published as Stay Awake due to publishing considerations, and Dying at Non-Sandglass Time (2025).
In 2026, Lavi and the Tatamis, a novella, was added to her published work.
She continues to read, pursue poetry, and tell stories. And she remains fascinated by what words can do—not only on the page, but to the person who puts them there.
Write to Golnaz