Flash-fiction master Grant Faulkner and photographer Gail Butensky have partnered to create something out there in the distance (UMN Press), a “flash novel” of stories and photography.
The book tells of two lovers taking a reckless, searching road trip through the American West. Dawn is a photographer who captures desert landscapes. Jonny drives just to drive, running away from the end of time or running toward the end of time, looking for a home even as his restlessness overtakes him. By turns funny, poignant and heartbreaking, something out there in the distance is big in emotions while brief in words. An extraordinary collaboration between word and image, Dawn and Jonny’s journey transports readers to a place, achingly familiar, populated by love, loss and wonder.
Faulkner is the co-founder of 100 Word Story, the co-founder of the Flash Fiction Institute and the co-host of the podcast Memoir Nation. He is the author of several books, including The Art of Brevity: Crafting the Very Short Story (UNM Press) and All the Comfort Sin Can Provide. He will serve on the faculty at the 2026 Erma Bombeck Writers’ Workshop.
Butensky is a renowned photographer whose work has been featured on numerous record covers as well as in books and magazines. She is the author of the photography book Every Bend.