Such
Earlier this month, a story that’s very special to me was published in the anniversary issue of Kweli Journal. I began working on this story in 2023 during the VONA Summer Workshop, and once I felt comfortable with it, I submitted it to Kweli. Over the past four years, I’ve taken “The Art of the Short Story” course twice, learning craft, getting real feedback, and expanding my storytelling.
“Such” is about a man remembered after his death through the eyes of a twelve-year-old boy who knew him simply as a friend. This piece matters to me because Such is so many people I grew up around—men who lived on the margins of their neighborhood, gave what they had, and rarely had anyone stand up and say they mattered.
I hope you enjoy “Such”.
The preacher said “troubled soul” so much, you would think that was Such’s given name. In fact, I don’t think they’ve said Solomon Ulysses Grant one time. No one ever called him that. Everyone called him Such. I don’t know the origin story behind the name, but that’s the only name I’ve ever heard him answer to.
My father says he always remembers Such being Such; drunk or high or drunk and high, asking for money, doing odd jobs, just walking the street. My mother seems to think she went to school with him. So, I figure he’s somewhere between 37 and 60 years old. I have no idea how old he was. I looked at the program again. No sunrise, just a sunset. It seems about right. Such doesn’t come from anywhere; he just is. Or was.
The picture they used might have been a mugshot. It could be his welfare ID. Such was what the old folks called a ne’er-do-well. He wasn’t the kind of guy you had to fear, but he lived close enough to desperate that you kept your eyes on him.
Read the rest in the December 2025 issue of Kweli Journal:
https://www.kwelijournal.org/fiction/2025/12/4/such-by-al-lateef-farmer