Hotshot: A Life on Fire

by River Selby

The fierce debut memoir of a female firefighter, Hotshot navigates the personal and environmental dangers of wildland firefighting

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 constraints of what it means to be female-bodied in a male-dominated industry. An illuminating debut from a fierce new voice, Hotshot is a timely reckoning with both the personal and environmental dangers of wildland firefighting.

By the time they were nineteen, 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. Two years later, they 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. Simultaneously hyper visible and invisible, Selby navigated an odd mix of camaraderie and rampant sexism on the job and, when they challenged it, 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 and years of research, Selby examines how the collision of fire suppression policy, colonization, and climate change has led to fire seasons of unprecedented duration and severity. A work of rare intimacy, Hotshot provides new insight into fire, the people who fight it, and the diversity of ecosystems dependent on this elemental force.

“A beautiful reflection on justice, the environment, the self, and much more.”—George Saunders

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, Audiobook, Biography, LGBT, Biography Memoir, Nature

Audible Audio

First published August 12, 2025

About the author

River Selby worked as a wildland firefighter for seven years, stationed out of California, Oregon, Colorado, and Alaska. They are the author of HOTSHOT: A LIFE ON FIRE.

They are currently a Kingsbury and Legacy Fellow at Florida State University, where they are pursuing their PhD in Nonfiction with an emphasis in postcolonial histories, North American colonization, and postmodern literature and culture. River has spent nearly a decade researching the history of fire suppression in the United States, Indigenous fire and land-tending practices, climate change impacts, and ecological adaptations across North American landscapes. Their research is informed by their extensive field experience.

River is a first generation high-school and college graduate. They hold an MFA in fiction from Syracuse University, and a BA in English and Textual Studies from the same institution, where they served as a Remembrance Scholar before graduating summa cum laude, with honors. River also received a Critical Language Scholarship for Hindi and served as a Fulbright ETA in the Czech Republic.

Hotshot: A Life on Fire is their first book.

River was born in Los Angeles and grew up in the Pacific Northwest.

Reviews

[Pamela · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the third book I’ve read this year about a hotshot firefighter, the second one about a woman (see: When it All Burns and Wildfire Days). There was also a fourth book about firefighting in general, just called Fire, which is fictional. It is hard for me to not compare this book with these other memoirs.

Here, Selby goes deeper into her own personal life than the other two, while weaving in the specifics of the history of an area of a current active fire. These three memoirs also discuss how damaging the total fire suppression activity is for the environment and health of the forest. Selby’s account seems to take on a more fervent tone of the damage this is doing, despite it being her job.

Not surprisingly, women are not common as hotshots. There are some, but it is a male dominated job. It is also one that tends undermine the women that do show up. Selby dives into this a bit more than Kelly Ramsey, likely due to her experience with men behaving badly. Ramsey had some of that too, but maybe minimized it. The guys on these crews are usually quite young, and are guided by their superiors, it appears this abusive behavior is systemic. Reporting it generally means losing one's job, as it becomes worse for the woman.

Selby spends quite a bit of time discussing her mom, and that relationship. Like Ramsey who also lost a parent while being a firefighter, they had a tough relationship. Selby didn’t have another parent to lean on though, and the result was a messy adolescence. Firefighting was a way out of some of that self-abuse and giving her a tough job that helped her. In some ways this book is much more about Selby than being a hotshot, unlike the other two.


I listened to the audiobook which was narrated by the author. She did a decent job of it, but honestly, I thought it was too slow and had to speed it more than I usually do to find a decent listening pace. Otherwise, it went well.



Thanks to Grove Atlantic/Atlantic Monthly Press and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book. However, I listened to a published audiobook copy of the book.

[Leo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Got the audiobook for review.

This was such an indebt memoir in not just wildlife, her work, history and environment but also her personal life and the many struggles and difficult things she had to go trough. It was an heavy book to listen to but the narration was great and the book as whole was able to fit many diffrent things without anything feeling less.

[Booksblabbering || Cait❣️ · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very intimate memoir of a female firefighter which shows the personal and environmental dangers of wildland firefighting.

You get history, environmental facts, tense scenes, sexism, personal relationships, and rocky mental health.

The author has a very vivid way of writing the decoration left by the fires. I could almost smell the smoke and feel the crunching bush under my feet.

Whilst I think there was slightly too much indulgence in the personal for a book about wild firefighting, it did make the author feel more real and broken. Trigger warnings for eating disorders, substance abuse.bad relationships, family issues, sexual assault.

This is a very brave story to tell and I wish the author the happiest of futures.

Audiobooks arc gifted by publisher.

Bookstagram
Tiktok

[Tina Loves To Read · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a Non-Fiction Memoir. I read this book by listening to the audiobook for this book. I really enjoyed this book, and this book covers so many topics. I think it was well done, but there were times I wished I got more of the author's emotions. I received an ARC of this book. This review is my own honest opinion about the book like all my reviews are.

[laurel [the suspected bibliophile] · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very intense and personal memoir of being a minority gender (at the time, Selby presented as a cis woman) in the world of fire management—interspersed with research on forest and desert ecology and the follies of land management.

I really enjoyed this book, as much as it was painful in parts to read (there are heavy, heavy trigger warnings).

Selby's writing style is immersive, and I loved reading about their research and thoughts on how to better manage the ever-growing disaster of forest management that has been compounded by decades of odd-science and the timber industry (note: my family is part of the timber industry and I have had a lot of the not-so-truthful facts fed to me since I was little, so it's been hard unlearning that) (also note: studies produced within and by an industry that wants to continue operating as is are, perhaps, not the most reliable). Their conclusion? Land back to Indigenous communities.

Fire in itself is not bad—controlled burns were used by Indigenous communities throughout the nation to control and manage their environment. However, fire now has become hotter and more destructive through the increasingly unstable and higher temperatures of climate change, the absence of prescribed burns (causing a huge amount of brush and scrub that creates a hotter burn), and the clear-cut/reforestation methods of the timber industry that remove the fungal network and create an unhealthy homogenous forest of single-species (non-native) plants.

The memoir portions details Selby's relationships with the hotshot crews they worked with for several years, and the misogynistic environments created by shoddy leadership and, again, a fairly homogenous compilation of straight, cishet white men—the structures further imbalanced by the imbalanced ways the federal government pays hotshot crews and forest workers and allows them to work in unsafe conditions (not just fire, but the effects of fire: ash, pollutants, etc.) with little recourse to future medical care once their employment has ended.

Selby's experience and the attitudes of the men they worked with mirrored in many ways my own experience in the Marine Corps (in many ways, the Marines and hotshot crews are VERY similar)—and their attitude of trying so hard to mold and belong felt like a punch to the gut (fawning, pick-me, working hard and never being accepted and trying again and again to fit in as a perpetual outlier—the constant internal misogyny and self-sabotage).

Anywho, one to read as a science-memoir, and one that pairs very well with Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants, Wildfire Days: A Woman, a Hotshot Crew, and the Burning American West, and Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest.

[Carly Vester · Rating 5 out of 5]

River Selby's debut novel is all at once a gripping, educational, and poignant memoir. Selby has seamlessly woven their wildland firefighting experiences with fire suppression history, drawing in details of traditional ecological knowledge (TEK), policy, and the west's ragged history of colonization for a must-read in understanding the complexities of wildfires in the western US.

Selby's writing draws on their personal experiences navigating trauma, grief, and rampant sexism in the industry with well-researched historical context, pulling the reader into each firefighting season. I spent time studying Ethics and Restoration in graduate school, which touched on TEK and fire suppression history. Selby's book would have fit the curriculum perfectly! I learned so much from this novel, including the differences in management of National Parks versus lands owned by the Forest Service, how fire suppression includes intentionally lit fires, and how entwined US history and policy is with the management of fire.

At the same time, "Hotshot" is an important memoir in shifting the culture and instilling zero-tolerance policies against discrimination, harassment, violence. "It's my belief that this harassment, discrimination, and the risk of violence will never go away until we address the power structures within these agencies, which allow those at the top, like superintendents and district rangers, to dictate the cultures of their crews and districts," Selby writes. I couldn't agree more.

To the author, thank you for sharing your vulnerability with the world and congratulations on a beautiful debut novel.

[Ian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just...Wow.
While I read the introduction, not even the first chapter, I felt a growing fire in my belly. Learning about the author’s tragic and triumphant life story immediately struck something deep in me.
Their story is one of surviving a life that felt like a raw, inflamed wound- a pain so constant they had become numb to it. But slowly, that same fire began to heal them, fusing the broken pieces into something stronger.
In the introduction, River shares that they are non-binary and have endured profound loss, including family trauma and an eating disorder. Their life felt so fragile, as if it could be blown away like ashes... and yet, they were refined by the fire.
As a non-binary individual myself, I want to thank River for the immense courage it took to tell Ana's story with such heart and vulnerability. It’s a powerful, necessary book.

[Amanda Monthei · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you to Grove Atlantic for an advanced copy of Hotshot!

I found this book to be simultaneously devastating and empowering and, above all else, immensely readable. This is not a memoir about fighting fire; it's a memoir about how fighting fire fits into a big, complicated life, and how this wild, intense and—at times—traumatic job kept River coming back against all odds. There's also just the right amount of ecological and historical context to provide the reader with a bit of a broader understanding of firefighting, fire ecology and Indigenous fire practices across North America.

As a former (female-identifying) wildland firefighter and hotshot, the thing I most loved about this book was that it validated so many of the complicated emotions I often felt working in fire, but which I didn’t have the language for until reading this book. I rarely finish books in less than a week, and I finished this in about three days...that should serve as a testament to how much I enjoyed it!

[Jessica Poli · Rating 5 out of 5]

An ambitious and stunning debut. I’m blown away by how much experience and information this book synthesizes. It’s many things at once: a well-researched history of fire, indigenous land stewardship, colonization, and climate change; an emotionally charged memoir of searching for identity and navigating trauma and grief; a thoughtful meditation on humanity’s relationship to the natural world. “When we can understand the land as part of us rather than separate, the potential for healing is infinite,” Selby writes.

[Ariel Acar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hotshot is an upcoming nonfiction/memoir from author River Selby. This book is rich with information about the environmental complexities of fire suppression and the impact of human behavior on our landscapes. These themes of nature are woven between stories of Selby’s life as a female wildland firefighter.

This will sound stupid to say, but I think this book does a really good job at being what it is. It is both an intensely vulnerable memoir and a thorough resource on environmental science—in equal parts. I can think of a few different friends or coworkers who would find this memoir really interesting.

TW: eating disorders, sexual assault, suicide, substance abuse, mental illness, sexual content

As you can see from the list above, this book hits on several heavy topics that may not be suitable for all readers. I’m pretty unflinching when it comes to these things, and the only part I’m still looking for at the end of the book is some resolution on Selby’s experiences with those things. Maybe unbeknownst to the author, the reader is rooting for you!

River, I hope you’re doing well and thriving today. This book taught me more than I ever dreamed of learning about fire, nature’s response to it and the various local and government departments, agencies and programs that regulate our human interactions with the land.

This is a 5 ⭐️ read for me. Hotshot is available on August 12, 2025. Thank you to NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for this ARC in exchange for me honest review.

#netgalley #netgalleyreview #hotshot #wildlandfirefighting #statepark #wildfire #memoir #book #bookreview #booksta #bookstagram #groveatlantic #ad #riverselby

[Darcia Helle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quick thoughts: Fascinating and informative.

HOTSHOT is a memoir by a woman who was a wildland firefighter, which is a largely male-dominated job. But that descriptor doesn’t even begin to tell you all this book entails. I learned so much!

Woven in with her personal experiences, we have broader stories of the indigenous tribes that once took care of the land now owned and managed by the government. We learn about the differences in how they used fire to clear land, as opposed to how we now use controlled fires. We get information on climate change and how this is changing the way wildfires burn.

River Selby has an engaging writing style. She shares some things that must have been difficult to write about, but the weight is never crushing for the reader. We feel the emotion and effects without being immersed in the darkness.

I have immense respect for the author and all she’s gone through to get where she is today. I hope we’ll be seeing more from her in the future!

*Thanks to Grove Atlantic for the free ARC!*

[Courtney Maum · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you're looking for a book that gives you a lot of bang for your buck- HOTSHOT is it. This hybrid memoir offers an exceptional overview of land management and the history of controlled fire use in North America alongside the personal experience of a woman "hotshot" in different teams of men. I felt the author moved seamlessly and intelligently from reported research to her own personal narrative. A great book for readers of all genders, and an important one.

[Chad Manske · Rating 4 out of 5]

River Shelby’s memoir “Hotshot: A Life on Fire” is a searing, meticulously crafted account of life on the front lines of wildland firefighting that doubles as a searching inquiry into identity, justice, and the American landscape. It is both an adrenaline-soaked narrative of elite “hotshot” crews and a reflective, politically aware meditation on what it means to live inside systems that burn people and places alike. Shelby uses their years on hotshot crews in the American West as a lens on climate crisis, settler colonialism, and U.S. fire policy, interweaving scene-rich firefighting episodes with history, ecology, and fire science. The book foregrounds how suppression-focused policy, the erasure of Indigenous fire practices, and a macho, militarized fire culture interact to make contemporary wildfire both more destructive and more symbolically charged. Rather than functioning as a simple “disaster memoir, “Hotshot” asks what should be saved and what must be allowed to burn—socially and politically as much as environmentally. Shelby’s framing of fire as both tool and threat gives the book an intellectual backbone that will engage readers interested in policy as much as adventure. Equally compelling is Shelby’s account of becoming one of very few women on all-male, hyper-masculine crews in the early 2000s, enduring harassment, stalking, and routine misogyny in a world that claims to worship toughness but punishes vulnerability. The memoir braids that workplace hostility with earlier experiences of family instability, addiction, and an eating disorder, so that firefighting becomes both escape hatch and new arena of self-harm. As Shelby’s understanding of their gender and body evolves, the narrative pushes beyond “overcoming” trauma toward a more cyclical model of damage and regeneration, mirroring fire’s role in renewing a forest. Their willingness to interrogate why danger felt necessary—and who pays the cost of that necessity—gives the book unusual psychological depth. Stylistically, the memoir is vivid and cinematic on the fireline while remaining reflective and lyrical in its essayistic passages, a balance that keeps the narrative propulsive without sacrificing thoughtfulness. The research never feels tacked on; policy and history emerge from the terrain of the story itself, reinforcing the sense that no individual fire—and no individual life—exists apart from larger structures. For readers drawn to narrative nonfiction that fuses perilous work with rigorous intellect, “Hotshot” is both gripping and unsettling, a book that lingers like smoke and invites hard questions about risk, belonging, and what genuine recovery might require.

[Alice · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hotshot is one of those rare memoirs that manages to be blisteringly personal and urgently political at the same time. River Selby doesn’t just recount a decade of fire seasons; they pull the reader into the heart of the wildland, into the body-breaking, soul-forging labor of fighting fire, and into the complexities of being a female-bodied firefighter in a culture that both depended on and rejected them.

What makes this book unforgettable is its refusal to simplify. Selby’s story is one of survival, through addiction, violence, and homelessness, and of resilience forged in smoke and heat. But it’s also an unflinching examination of the costs of carving out space in a male-dominated world. The moments of camaraderie are real, but so too are the betrayals, the silence, the violence of exclusion. That duality, the love of the work and the grief of being pushed out, lingers long after the final page.

Equally powerful is the way Selby braids personal narrative with the larger ecological and historical context. Their reflections on fire science, Indigenous land stewardship, and the failures of federal fire policy ground the memoir in a much wider story, one not just about identity and belonging, but about how we as a society relate to fire itself.

Selby’s prose is visceral and lyrical, able to capture the crackling immediacy of a fire line, the exhaustion of endless labor, and the quiet ache of loss with equal force. It’s a book that left me humbled, angry, and strangely hopeful all at once.

Hotshot isn’t just a memoir of a life on fire, it’s a testament to resilience, a reckoning with power and erasure, and a necessary meditation on the land we live with and the flames that shape it.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

As I was reading this book, wildfire smoke covered vast areas of the U.S. - where I was in Colorado (actually coincidentally one of the towns where Selby was once based), where my brother resides in Seattle, and even in New York City where my friend works. It felt like every time I talked to with anyone I knew, no matter what area of the country they were in, complaints of the wildfire smoke would come up. I was growing frustrated at how many days it felt unhealthy to be outdoors.

It feels like the only way for things to improve is, for a start - a wider and deeper understanding of how natural wildland fires are supposed to work. River Selby covers the history of pre-colonial fires and fire-fighting in North America, not extensively enough to feel dull and textbookish, but enough that I finished the book and felt much more knowledgeable about WHY wildfires are becoming more and more out of control in current times.

The book is not solely about fire-fighting; Selby also boldly shares very deep and personal stories from both her experiences as being one of the few women "hotshots," and as someone who was challenged with mental health struggles in her immediate family.

Would recommend this memoir!

[Malia Vinyard · Rating 5 out of 5]

I highly recommend this book for those who care about the environment, reading personal experiences about the life of a wildlife firefighter and hotshot, or anyone who just wants a gripping and educational read! Selby's way of weaving between their current experiences while on the hotshot crews and their flashbacks of their life growing up was smooth and powerful. Their book is an excellent combination of personal story and experience, with public education on the history of our public lands and the various fire services. Thank you for covering the untold experience of so many female and non-binary firefighters from such a vulnerable place! 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

[Romulo Perez-Segnini · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book reads more like a PhD thesis for forestry, American Indian history and climate change than a thrilling memoir of a female Hot Shot with a tumultuous past.

The pace is brutally slow with the over abundance of facts, for which the author did thorough research. There is little connection with the protagonist due to this overwhelming side stories. It would have been better to write two books; one with all the side facts and a true memoir.

The stories of sex abuse, homelessness and other meaningful parts of her life are brushed over while going into in-depth about indigenous rituals and sidetracks into completely unrelated topics that add little to the story, i.e. mentions to Mark Twain’s cabin or Japanese-American detention camps after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

I learned some interesting facts about controlled-fires, life of a Hot Shot, misogyny in the forestry department and beautiful vivid imagery but fell short to keep my interest. I finished just to see what happened to her life which she relates superficially then ends with a righteous criticism of the system she belonged to.

Overall disappointing to what I expected from the book and the publisher’s description of it.

[Bethany · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5* This book is a mix of memoir and the science/history of fire in North America. It doesn't always gel together, and I found more than one editorial error, but it's such an important perspective and so earnestly told with raw emotion and thoughtful insight, all of which more than makes up for that.

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow this book will stay with me for a while. As a memoir it was beautiful. River's story is unbelievable. Her inclusion of fire, national parks, and wildfire fighting history and techniques make this so much more fascinating of a read.

[Kristine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Until reading HOTSHOT by academic and former wildland firefighter River Selby, I had very little understanding of how fire policy and protocol (local, state, federal) alters the natural burn behavior, rate, and intensity of wildfire, with each political administration swinging the pendulum against the last. In essence, Selby argues, the fires we fear today are human-made, for our generations of suppressing fire when the landscape needed fuels to burn, and for our decades of manipulating which plants and trees regrow from the ashes. I was also stunned and ashamed, though not surprised, to learn how deeply hostile Selby found the male-dominated firefighting profession, even when, across SEVEN YEARS, they proved themselves beyond physically and technically proficient. This is a stirring memoir about redemption but with a close and arresting look at how Selby survived the blaze.

[Jacob Bond · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible. One of the greatest things I’ve read. Couldn’t put it down.

[Allison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Earlier this year I read another memoir written by a hotshot firefighter and I absolutely loved it. I didn’t enjoy this one quite as much, but it was still a great book and very informative. Full review later :)

[Relena_reads · Rating 5 out of 5]

Damn. If you read and enjoyed Fire Weather when it came out only two years ago, you need to read this. Selby is mostly talking about their own time on fires, which predates the blaze that's the center of Valiant's book, but they're also a current researcher in the field bringing to bear their understanding of fire in 2025 and so much has happened since 2023. This is one of those subjects where we're going to need another new book ever 15 months in order to stay on top of the science, written by people who can bring humanity to the experience as well as Valiant and Selby do.

I learned so much about fire and firefighting from this book, but it was also balanced against a particularly powerful personal story that taught me a lot about resilience and reminded me a lot about the barriers to access.

I'll be looking forward to what Selby does next and I look forward to hearing their voice again.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing an audio ARC.

[Bella · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredibly powerful and informative. Brave, badass, and heartbreaking. Narration by the author adds to poignancy.

[Paige- TheBookandtheBoston · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a very interesting read. I expected it to be about River’s late adolescent years where they struggled with homelessness and drugs among other perils, but it mainly covered their years as Ana while she was a female firefighter (specifically a “hotshot”), and all the issues of wildland fires in general. I liked how the facts and history of wildland fire fighting were interspersed with her actual experiences. If you’ve wondered why it seems wildfires have been so much worse lately, this book will help explain a lot.

𝑾𝒉𝒐 𝑰'𝒅 𝑹𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒐:
Anyone curious about wildland fires, firefighting, or a female’s perspective in this male-dominated field.

𝑨 𝒏𝒐𝒕𝒆 𝒐𝒏 𝒏𝒂𝒓𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏:
The author narrates this themselves and does a wonderful job! The audio was so great to listen to!

I don’t like to rate memoirs, but really thought this deserved 5 stars.

[Liz · Rating 1 out of 5]

Slow and some parts were difficult to stay focused on. A whole chapter on Mark Twain.

[Morgan Marks · Rating 5 out of 5]

River is an incredibly talented human! This is their first book and I’m loving reading it. The perspectives shared about difficult topics in thoughtful ways are inspiring. It feels special to read a book that tackles difficult and challenging topics (being the only woman on a hotshot crew, wildfires, Indigenous traditional knowledge of fires, to name a few) and does so with humility and grace. Highly recommend this book because everyone can learn something from these stories and River, I think.

[Katya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible, fantastic, well-researched book

[Kay · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love memoirs however this one bored me sadly. I didn’t finish it. I skipped around and fast forwarded through many parts. Way too much educational information and details about firefighting, the environment, etc. Yes some of that is helpful but often times in every chapter it felt more llike a school lesson and not a memoir. The audiobook was very monotone as well.

[Anne I · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a beautiful book. The chapters unfold like snapshots from Selby's life - their experiences as a wildland firefighter as well as their personal experiences of trauma. Selby’s lovely prose is clear, concise, accessible, and evocative; I could easily picture the landscapes where they fought fires and could feel their sorrow and isolation as well as their determination and drive. Selby's description of their first experience fighting a fire had me on the edge of my seat, as if I was there.

Selby uses an economy of words to skillfully and sensitively describe their experiences of trauma and does so without sensationalizing or falling into gratuitous detail. As I read these sections, I felt a kinship and great empathy for what they endured and how they survived.

Selby intersperses these stories with a well-researched history of fire suppression in the United States, from indigenous practices that preserved the land to modern firefighting techniques and policies that damage forests and grasslands, making them even more vulnerable to fire.

I highly recommend this book and believe it would resonate with a wide range of readers.