Cheryl Strayed
Author of Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail
About the Author
Cheryl Strayed, née Nyland, was born on September 17, 1968 in Spangler, Pennsylvania. She is an American memoirist, novelist and essayist. Her second book, Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail was published in the United States on March 20, 2012, and has been translated into more show more than thirty languages. It is an Oprah Book Club 2.0 choice, made the New York Times Bestseller list and was optioned for film rights by Reese Witherspoon even before it was published. The film is scheduled to be released in 2014. Strayed's first book, the novel Torch, was published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in February 2006. She attended 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. A long-time feminist activist, Strayed served on the first board of directors for VIDA: Women in Literary Arts. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Works by Cheryl Strayed
Two Women Walk into a Bar 37 copies
Vadon 1 copy
Associated Works
Nasty Women: Feminism, Resistance, and Revolution in Trump's America (2017) — Contributor — 216 copies
Touchstone Anthology of Contemporary Creative Nonfiction: Work from 1970 to the Present (2007) — Contributor — 184 copies
Tasting Life Twice: Literary Lesbian Fiction by New American Writers (1995) — Contributor — 122 copies
Mentors, Muses & Monsters: 30 Writers on the People Who Changed Their Lives (2009) — Contributor — 67 copies
Out of Line: Women on the Verge of a Breakthrough — Contributor — 1 copy
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Other names
- Nyland, Cheryl (birth name)
- Birthdate
- 1968-09-17
- Gender
- female
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Spangler, Pennsylvania, USA
- Places of residence
- Portland, Oregon, USA
Chaska, Minnesota, USA
Aitkin County, Minnesota, USA - Education
- University of Minnesota
Syracuse University
McGregor High School
University of St Paul - Occupations
- memoirist
novelist
essayist - Organizations
- Vida: Women in Literary Arts
- Short biography
- Cheryl Strayed (born September 17, 1968) is an American memoirist, novelist, essayist and podcast host. The author of four books, her award-winning writing has been published widely in anthologies and major magazines.
Strayed's first book, the novel Torch, was published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in February 2006 to positive critical reviews. Torch was a finalist for the Great Lakes Book Award and selected by The Oregonian as one of the top ten books of 2006 by writers living in the Pacific Northwest. In October 2012, Torch was re-issued by Vintage Books with a new introduction by Strayed.
Strayed's second book, the memoir Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail, was published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf on March 20, 2012. It has been translated into 30 languages. The week of its publication, Wild debuted at number 7 on the New York Times Best Seller list in hardcover non-fiction. In June 2012, Oprah Winfrey announced that Wild was her first selection for her new Oprah's Book Club 2.0. The next month Wild reached number 1 on the New York Times Best Seller list, a spot it held for seven consecutive weeks. The paperback edition of Wild, published by Vintage Books in March 2013, spent 126 weeks on the New York Times Best Seller list. The book has also been a bestseller around the world—in the UK, Germany, Australia, Brazil, Spain, Portugal, Denmark and elsewhere. Wild won the Barnes & Noble Discover Award and the Oregon Book Award.
In July 2012, Vintage Books published Strayed's third book: Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar. The book debuted in the advice and self-help category on the New York Times Best Seller list at number 5 and it has also been published internationally. Tiny Beautiful Things is a selection of Strayed's popular "Dear Sugar" advice columns, which she wrote for no pay for the literary website The Rumpus from 2010 to 2012.
Strayed's fourth book, Brave Enough, was published in the United States by Knopf on October 27, 2015, and in the United Kingdom a week later by Atlantic Books. It debuted in the advice and self-help category on the New York Times Best Seller list at number 10.
Members
Discussions
Gone Girls, Found in Reading Books by Women (February 2015)
Reviews
Tiny Beautiful Things (10th Anniversary Edition)… by Cheryl Strayed
DNF. I could tell from the beginning this wasn’t going to be my kind of book. When there is no warning whatsoever that there’s going to be discussion of sexual abuse of the author as a child *in the foreword* (and, might I add, the author brought this memory up as a response to a reader’s query that was unrelated), it’s clear this is not going to be an edifying read for me personally.
Ms Strayed takes the reader to a difficult time in her life - grieving for her dead mother and blowing up her own life with destructive personal choices. And then the author decides to hike part of the PCT and this memoir is the tale of how this difficult and challenging journey brought healing to her soul. The book isn't full of soul searching - it is very much grounded in the physical pain and challenges of the trail. But nevertheless, the process did help her work through her loss and choose to stop destroying her life. I really enjoyed the details of how she coped from day to day.… (more)
KIRKUS REVIEWUnsentimental memoir of the author?s three-month solo hike from California to Washington along the Pacific Crest Trail.Following the death of her mother, Strayed?s (Torch, 2006) life quickly disintegrated. Family ties melted away; she divorced her husband and slipped into drug use. For the next four years, life was a series of disappointments. ?I was crying over all of it,? she writes, ?over the sick mire I?d made of my life since my mother died; over the stupid existence that had become my own. I was not meant to be this way, to live this way, to fail so darkly.? While waiting in line at an outdoors store, Strayed read the back cover of a book about the Pacific Crest Trail. Initially, the idea of hiking the trail became a vague apparition, then a goal. Woefully underprepared for the wilderness, out of shape and carrying a ridiculously overweight pack, the author set out from the small California town of Mojave, toward a bridge (?the Bridge of the Gods?) crossing the Columbia River at the Oregon-Washington border. Strayed?s writing admirably conveys the rigors and rewards of long-distance hiking. Along the way, she suffered aches, pains, loneliness, blistered, bloody feet and persistent hunger. Yet the author also discovered a newfound sense of awe; for her, hiking the PCT was ?powerful and fundamental? and ?truly hard and glorious.? Strayed was stunned by how the trail both shattered and sheltered her. Most of the hikers she met along the way were helpful, and she also encountered instances of trail magic, ?the unexpected and sweet happenings that stand out in stark relief to the challenges of the trail.?A candid, inspiring narrative of the author?s brutal physical and psychological journey through a wilderness of despair to a renewed sense of self.… (more)
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Statistics
- Works
- 11
- Also by
- 12
- Members
- 11,660
- Popularity
- #2,020
- Rating
- 3.9
- Reviews
- 639
- ISBNs
- 126
- Languages
- 13
- Favorited
- 8
