Jess Sellers, Writer
Jess Sellers
"Between every two pine trees there is a door leading to a new way of life."
- John Muir
Stories From Beneath the Trees:
Encounters with Nature, Wonder, and the Sacred in the Ordinary
a celebration of trees, music, wonder, friendship, and the undercurrent that runs through everything
Stories From Beneath the Trees will be published by Sea Crow Press, November 3, 2026, distributed by Simon & Schuster. Follow along here, and subscribe to my newsletter for updates.
Stories From Beneath The Trees chronicles the author’s
journey from beneath the trees at the family farm, to her
service through music at medical facilities, and to “patches of wild” in noisy cities, where she encounters moments “that caught me by surprise and lured me from life’s
shallows into deeper waters.”
From old songs and hymns, lasting friendships, the
natural world, wise elders, birds, and conversations with patients about favorite tree memories, Sellers creates an intimate portrait of
our shared humanity, and its sanctity. A joy to read!
I invite you into these pages to wander beneath the trees
with me, to meet people whose lives are different from
your own, and join us in our silence, merry-making, and
sorrows. To travel with me into illuminating moments
where you might find or lose yourself, where you might
discover or rediscover your capacity for wonder. To journey
into places where a different kind of treasure waits and wants
to be found—that of our kinship with one another, and
with the natural world.
Early Praise for
Stories From Beneath the Trees
"Stories from Beneath the Trees is a heartfelt, heartwarming and heart-stoppingly beautiful book you will never forget. Wisdom, insight and poetry thread their way through stories of grief and love, music and memory, all attuned to the amazements of the natural world. Grace abounds here that will touch you deeply."
—Kimberly Elkins, author of What Is Visible
"Jess Sellers' Stories from Beneath the Trees is a profound look at how we’re shaped by memory, love, and loss. Weaving myth and childhood memories together with stories of the patients she served through music, Sellers takes us on an unforgettable journey into the human psyche and search for meaning.
With compassionate and poetic prose, Sellers not only brings Alzheimer’s patients, the elderly and dying, and others our society hides away and ignores, to life; she also reveals them as our best teachers and wisest sages. Yet her vast embrace doesn’t stop there: it expands to include all forms of life, such as birds, seeds, and – perhaps most notably – trees.
This book will leave you feeling connected, inspired, and awed by the mystery and wonder of life and death."
—Rachel Jones, author of Grief on the Front Lines: Reckoning with Trauma, Grief, and Humanity in Modern Medicine
“In Stories from Beneath the Trees, Jess Sellers creates an insightful tapestry of comfort and beauty from stories of music’s healing power offered in service to others, and our inexorable connection to the living Earth. Her words entwine these two universal human experiences—the vibrations of musical sound to which we all resonate, and simply being with the profound simplicity of other forms of life—to help enrich and complete our own human spirit.
—Carol J. Spears, CEO, Music for Healing & Transition Program (MHTP), and former National Park Service Ranger
Reprint: "What Will You Remember at the End of Your Life?"
The Galway Review, Literary Magazine
Publications
About Jess
I come from a family of farmers
and musicians, and had the
great privilege of growing up
on a pecan tree farm.
Everything I would come to be and write about started here.
Eventually I would serve as a
musician in various healthcare
settings for twenty years,
visiting diverse patient populations
from age sixteen to one hundred in
hospitals, nursing homes, assisted
living facilities, hospice, memory
care, and rehabilitation hospitals. It
was the most rewarding work of
my life.
I served these populations through community arts/music programs, ensembles, choirs, bands, as a singer-songwriter, and as a Certified
Music Practitioner (CMP).
As a life-long journal-keeper, writing has always been a part of who I am. My great-grandfather gave me a diary when I was five years old. I wrote my first "novel" on a Remington Streamliner manual typewriter at the age of ten.
I started writing Stories From Beneath the Trees in 2014, and
worked on it, off and on, for over ten years. In 2020, I retired as a musician and became a full-time caregiver for my husband, who suffers lasting effects from COVID-19. I now live a quiet, contemplative life with my husband and two rescue cats in Texas.
Here are some organizations I love to support. Maybe you would too?
