No matter the genre, author Strayed aims to tell ‘human truth’

Most writers tend to find niches, working in literary forms - novels, nonfiction, essays - in which they feel the most comfortable.

Know who isn't one of those writers? Best-selling author Cheryl Strayed, who works in literary forms ranging from short stories and essays to - and how cool is this? - an online advice column.

But whether Strayed is telling the story of a family coping with the death of a young mother and wife ("Torch"), examining her somewhat impulsive decision to hike the Pacific Coast Trail ("Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail") or offering advice to total strangers ("Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life From Dear Sugar"), the words always are meticulously chosen, the sentences finely crafted, the wit real and the emotion sincere.

Strayed will visit Las Vegas on Wednesday for a question-and-answer session and book signing at the Clark County Library. The free event is a prefestival offering of the Vegas Valley Book Festival (which runs Nov. 1-3) and will be hosted by author Maile Chapman ("Your Presence is Requested at Suvanto").

The trip to Las Vegas comes in the thick of a particularly hectic year for Strayed. Oprah Winfrey selected "Wild" to kick off the latest incarnation of her book club. "Wild" has been optioned by Reese Witherspoon's production company. And, in February, Strayed revealed herself as the woman behind the popular "Dear Sugar" advice column on The Rumpus (therumpus.net).

And, to top it all off, Strayed's first book, the novel "Torch," will be reissued next month with a new introduction by Strayed.

During a recent phone interview, Strayed says she hasn't delved into diverse literary forms deliberately. Rather, it's just a reflection of her curiosity and goal of "always doing something new."

"That's what keeps me, I guess, really engaged with my writing," Strayed says. "I think if I was always to do the same thing over and over, I'd get tired of that."

Besides, she adds, "I think you should always follow your curiosity. I think curiosity is a key component to success in any endeavor."

Strayed laughs. Also, she adds, factor in a measure of "fear and discomfort."

"I knew when I took over the 'Sugar' column, there was a good possibility I'd make a fool of myself," she explains. "So I think pushing myself in the direction of bravery is a great thing to do as a writer."

Strayed admits to being terrified the month or so before "Wild" hit the shelves in a way she wasn't when "Torch" was published.

The difference? "Torch" is a novel and "Wild" is a memoir.

"I felt very vulnerable," Strayed says. "If people did not like the book, it's hard not to take that personally. Of course, it's hard even with a novel. But a memoir, if they don't love you, you don't get to hide behind anything."

"Torch" certainly is imbued with Strayed's own experience of grieving the death of her own mother. But, she says, "there are things in the book where you could say, 'Yeah, this happened in the character's life, but this is fiction.' I could say, 'Yeah, well this character is this way, but I'm not this character.' With 'Wild,' I couldn't."

Strayed took the backpacking trip that is the basis of "Wild" during her 20s, not long after her mother's death. However, she didn't write the book until several years later.

Why the time lag? Mostly, Strayed says, because she hadn't planned to write about her hike when she took it. At the time, Strayed was simply an aspiring writer trying to deal with her mother's death and make sense of her own life.

As it turned out, "Torch" was the book "I had to write first," Strayed says. "It never occurred to me to write 'Wild' until I did, because the whole point of the book isn't a report of my hike, it's really the meaning I made of that hike."

The memoir's themes of grief and discovery struck a chord among readers for, perhaps, a variety of reasons - because they lost a parent, because they enjoy backpacking, because they're 20-somethings who want to read about a fellow 20-something or because, Strayed says, they might be a bit older and feel the need to feel reinspired about their lives.

Readers often will "start a conversation or email with a sentence that they liked 'Wild.' Then they'll tell me their story. They recognize themselves in my story. I think that's the beauty of memoirs."

Strayed even brings a literary sensibility to the advice column in her "Dear Sugar" pieces.

"The advice column thing was just so new to me, and, really, that's why I did it," Strayed says. Yet, from the outset, she was determined to not let the form limit what she did with it.

"I was going to turn it into a literary endeavor, the same way as I do in my essays, my novels, my memoir," she says.

Strayed takes seriously the responsibility of offering advice to other people and giving her correspondents "the best answers I could."

"I think that, sometimes in my generation and younger, there is this kind of overly cool, hip stance that can make fun of everything and be indifferent to everything, and I've never been like that. I've always tended toward being sincere and earnest."

Writing the column is "a great lesson to me that, ultimately, what you have to offer as a writer - and, I think, as a human, too - is who you are," Strayed says.

Another lesson: "I realized that there is no such thing as an expert advice-giver.

"The person who is going to give you good advice is going to be somebody different in different situations," Strayed says. "Sometimes it's your best friend who is going to give you the best advice. Sometimes it's your mom. Sometimes it's your mentor. Sometimes it's a stranger you're talking with in the grocery store line that we receive wisdom from. It's from all different sources."

Strayed says although others have commented on her ability to work so well in so many different literary forms, "It doesn't feel different to me at all. The really interesting thing to me is, the writing feels the same."

Whether crafting a story about imaginary characters, writing about her own life or trying to straighten out somebody else's, the goal always is to "tell the truth, the human truth," Strayed says.

"But it always feels the same in crafting that meaningful sentence or powerful moment," she says. "I'm always trying to tell a good story. To me it's the same. It's just a slightly different toolbox."

Contact reporter John Przybys at
jprzybys@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0280.