River Selby is a former wildland firefighter and current PhD candidate in creative writing. Their book, HOTSHOT, is forthcoming from Grove Atlantic (August 2025). River grew up in the Pacific Northwest and worked blue collar and service jobs for over a decade before attending college in their 30s. They hold an MFA in fiction from Syracuse University. River's work has been published in Vox, High Country News, Allure, and Bellevue Literary Review. You can find their newsletter, Navel Gazing, on Substack. They currently live in Florida.