MARS Presents: "Hotshot" with River Selby & Claire Thompson

Join Mineral Arts & Residencies in Mineral School's multipurpose room to hear River Selby read from and then discuss their new book, "Hotshot: A Life on Fire," about River's five years working on an elite firefighting team (and so much more) with Claire Thompson ('23), a longtime trail worker at work on a nonfiction manuscript. Books will be available for sale.

River will read, discuss the book with Claire, we'll take some questions from the audience, and we'll offer dessert — but you’re welcome to potluck additional treats. You may BYOB beverages. This presentation is free, with donations and dessert welcome (but not required), and is made possible with support from Elkamp, Mineral Lake Lodge, Arts Fund, and the Paul Allen Foundation, among others.

River Selby is a former hotshot and wildland firefighter, a writer, and a nonbinary person. They hold an MFA in creative writing from Syracuse University; they are currently pursuing their PhD. They were the recipient of the Emerging Writer’s Prize for Fiction from Boulevard Magazine for their story, “How Certain Fires Burn.” Their writing has appeared in the New Ohio Review, Bellevue Literary Review, Vox, and High Country News. They currently live in Tallahassee, Florida. Learn more at https://www.riverselby.com/

Claire Thompson led and worked on trail crews on Washington’s Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest for eight years. She teaches English at Wenatchee Valley College and is pursuing an MFA in nature writing from Western Colorado University. Claire is working on a book of creative nonfiction about the impacts of cultural, political and climate change on the public-lands workforce. See Claire's work here: https://www.terrain.org/2021/nonfiction/an-ecology-of-disturbance/

Kirkus Reviews calls Hotshot a tale "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...With fortitude and admirable vulnerability, Selby brings readers directly into a tumultuous time and place. Like fire, this book burns hot.”

You may also like the following events from Mineral Arts & Residencies:

• This Saturday, 20th September, 07:30 pm, MARS Presents: Claudia Rowe presenting from Wards of the State in Mineral

Also check out other Arts events in Mineral, Literary Art events in Mineral, Trips & Adventurous Activities in Mineral.