River Selby discusses ‘Hotshot’ on our Best August Books episode.

This episode of Fully Booked is dedicated to the hottest books of August. First, in a special editors’ segment, Laurie Muchnick, John McMurtrie, Mahnaz Dar, and Laura Simeon share their top titles for the month. Then I’m joined in conversation by River Selby, author of Hotshot: A Life on Fire (Atlantic Monthly, August 12), a powerful debut memoir chronicling their time as an elite firefighter. “With fortitude and admirable vulnerability, Selby brings readers directly into a tumultuous time and place,” Kirkus writes in a starred review. “Like fire, this book burns hot.”

Selby was born in Los Angeles, grew up in the Pacific Northwest, and spent seven years working as a wildland firefighter, stationed out of California, Oregon, Colorado, and Alaska. They earned an MFA in creative writing from Syracuse University and are currently pursuing a Ph.D. at Florida State University. Their writing has appeared in the New Ohio Review, Bellevue Literary Review, Vox, and High Country News. They live in Tallahassee.

Here’s a bit more from our review of Hotshot: “Selby had been a sex worker, a heroin addict, and a runaway by the time they began wildland firefighting at age 19. As much to their surprise as anyone’s, they found themself both loving and excelling in the firefighting ranks. In this debut memoir, they recount their years on the most elite—and male-dominated—firefighting crews in the country. With visceral prose, they bring readers directly to the heat and intensity of the front lines day and night, where in the darkness ‘coursing waves of embers shot upwards from conjoined flames as if the sky were reclaiming its lost stars.’…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.”

Selby and I discuss the meaning of the term hotshot, the physical challenges of firefighting, the tools of the trade, and the sexism they faced on majority-male crews. We discuss the ecological consequences of fire suppression, and Indigenous practices of tending fire. They share their journey to becoming a writer, the importance of a supportive editor, and much more.

BEST BOOKS OF AUGUST 2025:

Katabasis by R.F. Kuang (Harper Voyager)

Tonight in Jungleland: The Making of Born to Run by Peter Ames Carlin (Doubleday)

The Teacher of Nomad Land: A World War II Story by Daniel Nayeri (Levine Querido)

White Lies by Ann Bausum (Roaring Brook Press)

THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS:

Scorpions Ascent by Hollisa Alewine

Quiet Mind Crazy Heart by Suzi K. Edwards

Deadly Vision by T.D. Severin

Fully Booked is produced by Cabel Adkins Audio and Megan Labrise.