Early life

Strayed was born in Spangler, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Barbara Anne "Bobbi" (née Young; 1945-1991) and Ronald Nyland. At age six, she moved with her family to Chaska, Minnesota. Her parents divorced soon after. At age 13, she moved with her mother and stepfather Glenn Lambrecht, along with her two siblings, Karen and Leif, to rural Aitkin County, where they lived in a house that they had built themselves on 40 acres. The house did not have electricity or running water for the first few years. Indoor plumbing was installed after Strayed moved away for college. She later re-connected with her half-sister from a previous relationship of her father.

In 1986, at age 17, Strayed graduated from McGregor High School in McGregor, Minnesota, where she was a track and cross country runner, cheerleader, and homecoming queen. She loosely based the fictional Coltrap County in her novel Torch on McGregor and Aitkin County. Strayed attended her freshman year of college at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, but by her sophomore year, she transferred to the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, where she received her Bachelor of Arts degree, graduating magna cum laude with a double major in English and Women's Studies. In March 1991, when Strayed was a senior in college, her mother, Bobbi Lambrecht, died suddenly of lung cancer at age 45. Strayed has described this loss as her "genesis story". She has written about her mother's death and her grief in each of her books and several of her essays.

Strayed worked as a waitress, youth advocate, political organizer, temporary office employee, and emergency medical technician throughout her 20s and early 30s, while writing and often traveling around the United States. In 2002, she earned a Master of Fine Arts in fiction writing from Syracuse University, where she was mentored by writers George Saunders, Arthur Flowers, Mary Gaitskill, and Mary Caponegro.

Career

In addition to her four books Wild, Tiny Beautiful Things, Brave Enough, and Torch, Strayed has published essays in various magazines, including The Washington Post Magazine, The New York Times Magazine, Vogue, Tin House, The Missouri Review, and The Sun Magazine. Her work has been selected three times for inclusion in The Best American Essays ("Heroin/e" in the 2000 edition, and "The Love of My Life" in the 2003 edition, and "My Uniform" in the 2015 edition). Strayed was the guest editor of The Best American Essays 2013. She won a Pushcart Prize for her essay, "Munro Country," which was originally published in The Missouri Review. The essay is about a letter Strayed received from Alice Munro, when she was a young writer and Munro's influence on Strayed's writing.

Strayed wrote the popular advice column "Dear Sugar" on The Rumpus. She began writing the column in March 2010, when the column's originator Steve Almond asked her to take over for him. She wrote the column anonymously until February 14, 2012, when she revealed her identity as "Sugar" at a "Coming Out Party" hosted by the Rumpus at the Verdi Club in San Francisco. A selection of her columns have been collected in her bestselling book Tiny Beautiful Things.

Her memoir Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail details her 1,100-mile hike on the Pacific Crest Trail from the Mojave Desert to the Oregon-Washington border and tells the story of the personal struggles that compelled her to take the hike. Three months before her memoir was published, actress Reese Witherspoon optioned it for her company, Pacific Standard. Nick Hornby adapted Wild for the screen, with Witherspoon portraying Strayed in the film.

In June 2012, Wild was chosen as the inaugural selection for Oprah's Book Club 2.0, which is a relaunch of Oprah's Book Club, which ended in 2011. Oprah's Book Club 2.0 uses online social media such as Facebook and Twitter. Winfrey discussed Wild in her video announcement of the new club. Winfrey interviewed Strayed for a two-hour broadcast of her show Super Soul Sunday on her OWN Network.

Strayed is also a public speaker and often gives lectures about her life and books. She travels internationally to meet at writers retreats and lead writing seminars.

Strayed co-hosts the Dear Sugar podcast with Steve Almond. The podcast is produced by WBUR, Boston's National Public Radio affiliate.

Film adaptation of Wild

Main article: Wild (2014 film)

The film adaptation of Wild was released on December 3, 2014 in the United States with actress Reese Witherspoon starring as Strayed. The film was directed by Jean-Marc Vallée and distributed by Fox Searchlight Pictures. Witherspoon optioned Wild for film with producer Bruna Papandrea for their production company, Pacific Standard, a few months before Wild was published. The book was adapted for the screen by Nick Hornby. In October 2013, the film went into production with Witherspoon in the lead. The cast includes Laura Dern (as Strayed's mother, Bobbi), Strayed's daughter Bobbi Strayed Lindstrom (as the young Cheryl), Gaby Hoffmann, Thomas Sadoski, Michiel Huisman, and Kevin Rankin among others.

Personal life

Strayed married Marco Littig in 1988, a month before her 20th birthday. They divorced in 1995.

Strayed subsequently married filmmaker Brian Lindstrom in August 1999. They have two children and live in Portland, Oregon. Her daughter, Bobbi Strayed Lindstrom, played the younger version of Strayed in the film adaptation of Wild.

A long-time feminist activist, Strayed worked in her twenties as a political organizer for the Abortion Rights Council of Minnesota, which is now called Minnesota NARAL, and also for Women Against Military Madness, a feminist peace and justice nonprofit organization in Minneapolis-Saint Paul. She served on the first board of directors for Vida: Women in Literary Arts and has been active in many feminist and progressive causes.

Published works

• Strayed, Cheryl (2006). Torch, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 336 pages. ISBN 978-0618472178
• Strayed, Cheryl (2012). Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail, Knopf, 336 pages. ISBN 978-0307592736
• Strayed, Cheryl (2012). Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar, Vintage Books, 368 pages. ISBN 978-0307949332
• Strayed, Cheryl (2012). Torch, reissue with new introduction by the author, Vintage Contemporaries, 432 pages. ISBN 978-0345805614
• Strayed, Cheryl (2015). Brave Enough, Knopf, 160 pages. ISBN 978-1101946909

[ Source: Wikipedia ]