On Sale August 12th
HOTSHOT
From 2000 to 2010, River Selby was a wildland firefighter whose given name was Anastasia. This is a memoir of that time in their life—of Ana, the struggles she encountered, and the contours of what it meant to be female-bodied in a male-dominated profession.
By the time they were 19, Selby had been homeless, addicted to drugs, and sexually assaulted more than once. In a last-ditch effort to find direction, they applied to be a wildland firefighter. Soon immersed in the world of firefighting and its arcana—from specialized tools named for the fire pioneers who invented them, to the back-breaking labor of racing against time to create firebreaks—Selby began to find an internal balance. Then, after two years of ragtag contract firefighting, Selby joined an elite class of specially trained wildland firefighters known as hotshots.
Over the course of five fire seasons, Selby delves into the world of the people—almost entirely men—who risk their lives to fight and sometimes prevent wildfires. Marked out in a sea of machismo, Selby was simultaneously hyper visible and invisible, and Hotshot deftly parses the odd mix of camaraderie and rampant sexism they experienced on their fire crews, and how, when challenged, it resulted in a violent closing of ranks that excluded them from the work they’d come to love. Drawing on years of firsthand experience on the frontlines of fire, followed by years of research into the science and history of fire, Hotshot also reckons with our fraught stewardship of the land—how federal fire policy is maladapted to the realities of fire-prone landscapes and how it has led to ever more severe fire seasons.
Hotshot is a work of intimacy and authority, nimbly merging a personal journey of reinvention and self-acceptance with expert insight into the textured history of ecological systems and Indigenous land tending, the modern practices that have led to their imbalance, and the people who fight fire.
Praise for Hotshot
“What a wonderful, compassionate, sharply observed, beautifully researched, open-hearted book. Selby has lived a big, courageous life, and that largesse is evident on every page, in the form of the rigor and curiosity of the narrative voice. Ostensibly about fire-fighting, Hotshot turns out to be a beautiful reflection on justice, the environment, the self, and much more.”
— George Saunders, Booker Prize-winning and #1 New York Times Bestselling author of Lincoln in the Bardo
“Selby molds personal and ecological acceptance into a moving narrative about fire and humanity . . . With visceral prose, they bring readers directly to the heat and intensity of the front lines day and night . . . Shot through with their own challenges of bulimia, alcoholism, and relationships, the story is one of power and resilience, of someone struggling to make a life for themself in the inhospitable and challenging career of wildland firefighting. Spliced within it are historical and scientific examinations of firefighting in the American West. Deeply researched, these segments provide context for the book, but it is the narrative that is most gripping. With fortitude and admirable vulnerability, Selby brings readers directly into a tumultuous time and place. Like fire, this book burns hot.”
—Kirkus Reviews, starred review
“River Selby is the real deal. A writer who seems fearless, who is honest and fierce—and this stunning memoir of fighting wildfires is spectacular . . . and alive with grit and action and poetry.”
—Luis Alberto Urrea, Pulitzer Prize-finalist and New York Times Bestselling author of Good Night, Irene
“Former firefighter Selby debuts with a fierce examination of identity, climate change, and the shortcomings of U.S. fire policy. At 19, Selby turned to firefighting as an escape from their emotionally abusive upbringing, having already fled home several times and developed an alcohol habit as a teenager. Over the next seven years, Selby battled blazes across the American west…They alternate descriptions of the backbreaking work of firefighting with profiles of their mostly male colleagues, accounts of their struggles with bulimia, and reflections on their dawning realization that America’s suppression-based fire practices were ‘both ugly and intimately interconnected’ with ‘the impact of colonization on ecological landscapes and Native Americans.’ ‘I couldn’t see that the landscape needed cleansing by the flames I was supposed to extinguish,’ Selby writes, artfully paralleling their belief that excessive fire suppression worsens wildfire seasons and their growing resolve to stop pushing down their own emotions. Poetic, wise, and haunting, this seamless blend of memoir and science writing leaves a mark.”
–Publisher’s Weekly, (starred review)
“Hotshot is the story of a life forged through crucible. In this wondrous memoir Selby’s life reminds us courage can be grown, the self can be found and anything can change. A writer of shining talent and tenacity.”
—Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, New York Times bestselling author of Friday Black and Chain Gang All-Stars
“Hotshot is a brave, powerful, deeply moving memoir of survival and strength. It is also a timely, urgent history of fire, climate change, and our complex, fraught relationship to land stewardship. River Selby’s story is inspiring in its spiritual and emotional inventory. Selby is a wonderfully gifted writer about nature, about the complexities of trauma, and the hard-won possibilities of healing.”—Dana Spiotta, author of Wayward
“Hotshot is that rare species: a memoir of young adulthood and a clear-eyed take on wildland preservation from a naturalist who learned on the job. And what a job it was: the kind where a colleague tells you unironically to keep going, because you’re not dead yet. You can smell the smoke and feel the grit on the back of your neck, and the lessons—of which there are many—feel hard won and very timely. Selby’s road was harder than most, which makes their arrival as such an accomplished and thoughtful writer all the more satisfying.”—Nate Blakeslee, author of Tulia