Shawn Marie Graybeal-Sellers

I’m a writer, high school teacher, and photographer based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. I teach near the foothills, where the Sandias are impossible to ignore, and I’ve spent enough time wandering the North Valley — along the acequias, under the cottonwoods, in the particular quiet of that part of the city — that it found its way into the heart of my first novel.

I’ve spent my career in classrooms helping young people find their voices, and time with my camera learning to see the stories that exist in ordinary moments — in a face, a landscape, a shaft of light through a kitchen window. Both of those things, teaching and photography, taught me the same lesson: pay attention. There’s always more going on beneath the surface than what first meets the eye.

That’s what I write about too. People carrying things they haven’t named yet. Families that form in unexpected places. The complicated pull of a home you needed to leave and couldn’t stop loving.

Anywhere But Here is my debut novel, rooted in the landscape, culture, and community of the city I call home. It’s the book I needed to write, set in the place I know best, about the things that matter most to me — survival, chosen family, and the long road back to belonging.

I’m glad you’re here.