Author of the week: Cheryl Strayed

last updated 8 January 2015

Cheryl Strayed has been leading a double life, said Byard Duncan in SFWeekly.com. On the one hand, she’s Cheryl, author of Wild, the best-selling memoir about her hiking quest along the Pacific Crest Trail after her mother’s death. Since 2010, she’s also been Sugar, an advice columnist for TheRumpus.net. Now, a new book-length collection of “Dear Sugar” columns entitled Tiny Beautiful Things marks the final melding of her writing personas. “I always wrote the Sugar column, in my own heart, as Cheryl Strayed,” says the author, relieved to no longer have to keep the secret. “The Sugar persona was just a little veneer. I was maybe slightly sassier.” Because she began writing “Dear Sugar” as she was editing her memoir for publication, a few stories cut from Wild ended up in the column. “One blended into the other,” says Strayed.

Tiny Beautiful Things adds to a banner year for Strayed, said Tracy Clark-Flory in Salon.com. The success of Wild recently coaxed Oprah Winfrey to reboot her venerated book club and make it her first selection. Readers of the raw, emotional Wild, says Strayed, should connect with the Sugar columns, which she says come from finally being able to write honestly. “I took the chance to actually be myself. I was always very self-conscious about not being cool enough, that I wasn’t snarky or super-aloof and witty and cutting in that cool way. But I will risk telling the truth. I took that chance of writing completely from that place that I feel in my heart.”