Cheryl Strayed: “Tackle love”

Sun, 08 Jul 2012 01:00:00 +0000

The hardest thing about interviewing Cheryl Strayed is refraining from asking for personal advice. This is a rare impulse: I haven’t felt it even interviewing world-famous therapists and psychologists. But Strayed, the author of the runaway hit “Wild” -- which not only currently sits atop the New York Times Bestseller List, but also inspired Oprah-freaking-Winfrey to restart her book club and Reese Witherspoon to secure the movie rights -- is unusual, to say the least.

Before the explosive success of “Wild,” which tells the story of her harrowing solo 1,100-mile hike along the Pacific Crest Trail -- following the death of her mother, her divorce and an entanglement with heroin -- she achieved pseudonymous stardom as the advice columnist behind the Rumpus’ Dear Sugar. Since 2010 she's answered questions about everything from finding work after college to overcoming addiction under the moniker Sugar -- it was only on Valentine's Day of this year that she came out as Strayed -- and now a collection of those columns, “Tiny Beautiful Things,” will release on Tuesday, July 10.

Salon.com > Wild

Cheryl Strayed: “Tackle love”