Hotshot Reading Guide & Discussion Questions

Book Club Discussion Questions

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For supplemental discussion material see our Beyond the Book article, The Pulaski and our BookBrowse Review of Hotshot.

Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!

1. Selby recounts the feeling of conducting a backburn for the first time as "like entering an alternate dimension" (p. 53). They remember an absence of pain, being "cleansed" by the labor. How does focus function throughout the book, at turns helping Selby move through difficult and painful situations, at turns preventing them from finding the support they need?
2. Over and over, Selby explains how many American forests and other ecosystems need fire to stay healthy, frequently referring to indigenous forms of land stewardship that created and maintained thriving landscapes, destroyed by settler colonialism: "fire was ecologically necessary for western ecosystems to thrive" (p. 105). How does the U.S. government's willful ignorance of indigenous fire management strategies reflect other ways the settler colonial project functions throughout the United States?
3. Hotshot crews emphasize the importance of not showing fear. What might the consequences be of such a rigid stance, in firefighting and in other contexts?

Unless otherwise stated, this discussion guide is reprinted with the permission of Grove Press. Any page references refer to a USA edition of the book, usually the trade paperback version, and may vary in other editions.