Cheryl Strayed

Cheryl Strayed (born Cheryl Nyland; September 17, 1968) is an American author, essayist, and podcast co-host whose 2012 memoir Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail chronicles her solo 1,100-mile hike along segments of the Pacific Crest Trail in 1995, undertaken amid grief over her mother's death from cancer four years prior, a recent divorce , and personal battles with heroin addiction and promiscuity . The book, which candidly details her physical unpreparedness, trail mishaps, and introspective confrontations with past self-destructive choices, became a commercial phenomenon, topping The New York Times bestseller list, selling over five million copies worldwide, and selected for Oprah's Book Club 2.0 , leading to a 2014 film adaptation starring Reese Witherspoon that earned Academy Award nominations for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress. Strayed, who grew up in rural Minnesota after her parents' divorce and earned a B.A. from the University of Minnesota and an M.F.A. from Syracuse University , has also published the debut novel Torch (2006), the advice compilation Tiny Beautiful Things drawn from her anonymous "Dear Sugar" columns for The Rumpus , and the aphorism collection Brave Enough (2015). While praised for its raw emotional honesty and role in popularizing long-distance hiking among non-experts, Wild has faced scrutiny from experienced Pacific Crest Trail hikers for factual liberties in route descriptions, gear usage, and environmental encounters, as well as broader critiques questioning the memoir 's credibility in rendering her pre-trail moral lapses and the causal links attributed to her mother's death. Her later endeavors include co-hosting the podcasts Dear Sugars and Sugar Calling , with essays appearing in outlets such as The Best American Essays anthologies, though her prominence remains tied to Wild 's depiction of individual agency in overcoming trauma through physical endurance rather than institutional or therapeutic interventions.

Cheryl Strayed was born Cheryl Nyland in 1968 in Spangler, Pennsylvania , the middle child of Barbara Anne "Bobbi" Lambrecht (née Young) and Ronald Nyland, with an older sister named Karen and a younger brother named Leif . Her biological father exhibited abusive behavior toward the family, contributing to an unstable early home environment marked by emotional volatility.

When Strayed was approximately six years old, her parents divorced, after which her mother relocated the children from Pennsylvania to rural Minnesota , seeking greater stability amid the father's ongoing absence and unreliability. Bobbi Lambrecht, a resilient and determined woman who had embraced an unconventional path—including early marriage , teenage pregnancy , and subsequent relationships with multiple partners—prioritized self-reliance and optimism in raising her children, often in economically precarious conditions. She later remarried Eddie, a hardworking carpenter and positive paternal influence who helped instill in the children an appreciation for outdoor life and manual labor, though the family's dynamics remained shaped by prior disruptions.

The family eventually acquired 40 acres of land in Aitkin County, Minnesota , where Strayed experienced a rugged, rural childhood emphasizing practical independence, resourcefulness, and endurance amid financial hardships and the absence of her biological father. This setting, combined with her mother's fierce emphasis on perseverance despite adversity, formed the foundational context of Strayed's formative years, highlighting patterns of familial fragmentation and adaptive strength without idealization.

Strayed graduated from McGregor High School in McGregor, Minnesota, in 1986 at the age of 17 or 18. She began undergraduate studies that fall at the University of St. Thomas in Saint Paul, Minnesota , before transferring to the University of Minnesota in her sophomore year.