Saddle-stitched in wrappers. Cover photograph by David Wojnarowicz. Back cover quote from William S. Burroughs who observes that Wojnarowicz "has caught the age old voice of the road, the voice of the whore, the same voice that was heard in Villon's Paris, in the Rome of Petronius. Pick up the book and listen."

The monologues recored here were remembered by the author from his travels through America. He began writing them down toward publication as early as 1976. Aloes Books received the manuscript for Sounds in the Distance in 1980 and an edition of 500 was published in mid-1982. Jim Pennington, the publisher, reports that Bookslinger, one of his American distributors, pulped their considerable stock when they went out of business circa 1984. This helps explain the scarcity of Wojnarowicz's first book. Jim Pennington also informs us that the second blurb on the back cover is paraphrased from Brian Butterick's introduction that accompanied the manuscript though was not part of the final book.