Mountain Words Festival 2026

Join writer River Selby for a session on writing memoir. Selby is the author of Hotshot: A Life on Fire. 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.

Zooming in and Out in Memoir-

Writing a memoir can be overwhelming, especially if one story is emotionally charged (and it often is). In this generative workshop, River Selby, author of Hotshot: A Life on Fire, a Kirkus Best Nonfiction Book of 2025, will help writers identify a particular scene, zoom in, and then reflect on the elements surrounding that scene in a way that illuminates the material for both writers and readers. Bring a seed of a scene into the workshop– anything works; and expect to leave inspired and ready to continue writing.