Title: Something Out There in the Distance Authors: Grant Faullkner and Gail Butensky Publisher: University of New Mexico Press, unmpress.com Published: 2026 Hardcover with numerous color photographs, 87 pages ISBN: 978-0-8263-6858-4
“That’s the thing about books. They let you travel without moving your feet” Nilanjana Sudeshna 'Jhumpa' Lahiri, British-American author Author Grant Faulkner and photographer Gail Butensky have created a haunting tale of love.
Two people leave California and head east on an extended road trip seeking an answer to the riddle of life’s purpose.
They follow in the footsteps of renowned photographer Diane Arbus who said, “My favorite thing to do is to go where I’ve never been.”
Palm trees, desert mesas, and mountains in the far distance are some of the images that seamlessly blend with a story which is part nostalgia and partly a quest for never-ending adventure. The male narrator, Jonny, describes life on the road with his partner Dawn who photographs numerous everyday objects that attract her attention. A long row of mailboxes on a dusty side road is pure Americana. They buy rubber ducks, set one on top of each mailbox, and then drive away.
Dawn sees life differently, “It seems like it’s humans’ mission to fill all of the vacant spaces on this planet.”
Jonny recalls how his parents are disappointed in his choice of lifestyle which does not include saving money for retirement. His best friend brags about earning six figures selling insurance. An old girl friend writes to tell him that she has bought a house.
But Dawn and Jonny are dedicated to remaining footloose and fancyfree and wander on to new places. One of their choices is to make a home in an abandoned shack somewhere in the Southwest. They awaken one morning to find a stranger looming over their bed.
“A man with a handlebar mustache and a hairy chest showed up one day in a Trans Am. He looked like Burt Reynold’s dumb second cousin. We woke up and stared at his big belt buckle with a bucking bronco on it. He held a pistol.
‘You’re trespassing,’ he said.
‘We just wanted a home for a while she said.’” The couple moves on and meanders down country roads searching for new experiences.
But all things - the good and the bad - must eventually end.
He bids Dawn farewell “Her final words: ‘I send you away’ I keep driving. I am going to just keep driving.”
I found this narrative especially moving because I first fell in love with the Southwest as a child in 1955 when my family took a road trip on Rt. 66. I grew up in small towns in Arizona and New Mexico. The Land of Enchantment has been my home in the Gila Mountains, on the Colorado Plateau in the northwestern region, and now on the High Plains in northeast New Mexico. These landscapes feel like where I belong.
SIDEBAR: Grant Faulkner, a native of Iowa, earned a B.A. in English from Grinnell College, Iowa, and a Master of Arts in creative writing from San Francisco State University, California.
Faulkner, an American writer, is co-founder of the podcast Memoir Nation and co-hosts the 100 Word Story, an online literary journal, in addition to serving as executive director of America's Next Great Author. He is the former executive director of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo).
Faulkner’s books include The Art of Brevity: Crafting the Very Short Story, All The Comfort Sin Can Provide, and his latest endeavor, Something Out There in the Distance.
Gail Butensky, a nationally acclaimed photographer, began taking pictures in the early 1980s for the Daily Northwestern, Evanston, Illinois. She is well-known for chronicling the indie rock scene in cities like New York and San Francisco. Her photography has been published in The San Francisco Guardian, The Village Voice, and The Chicago Reader.
Butensky’s work is featured in books and magazines plus on the cover of numerous vinyl records. (Vinyl sales have surpassed that of CDs in recent years and have become the most popular musical physical format, according to industry officials.)
Butensky is the author of Every Bend, which documents decades of the music scene in several major U.S. cities.