“Spectacular . . . Gripping . . . A breathtaking adventure tale and a profound meditation on the nature of grief and survival . . . A literary and human triumph.”
—Dani Shapiro, New York Times Book Review of Cheryl Strayed’s “Wild.”
New York Times Bestseller Cheryl Strayed will be on the University of Wyoming campus today, March 22, for a public lecture on her memoir, “Wild,” at the college of arts and science auditorium enlightening undergraduates as well as graduates about creative non-fiction, memoir, publishing and printing.
There will also be a lunch held in the Coe building room 506 Friday for English and creative writing undergraduates to have an opportunity to meet Strayed and ask questions regarding her career and experiences as a writer. The lunch will be from noon to 1 p.m.
“We always like bringing visiting writers to campus when the funds are available,” Anne Marie Osburn, graduate assistant of the creative writing department said. “It’s a tough budget with the university so they can be difficult some years or others but it’s always a really wonderful thing to be able to bring in writers.”
“I sincerely hope we get between 500-800 people at the public event,” Gwenn Lemler, professor in the English department, said.
The event is organized through the creative writing program and the English department at UW to help undergraduate, graduate and beginning writers to inform them more about the hardships of writing, publishing, printing and so on.
“Constantly working and hustling and trying to get to different gigs here and there and writing for this website and that website and trying to piece it together, a viable life as a working writer while also writing this beautiful, beautiful, book that will affect so many people,” Osburn said. “So that’s personally why I am very excited to hear her talk.”
Cheryl Strayed’s memoir “Wild” was originally published in 2012 and is on the subject of her 1,100-mile hike to the Pacific Crest Trail from the Mojave Desert through California and Oregon to Washington State, which resulted in a journey of self-discovery.
Other books Strayed has authored include “Tiny Beautiful Things” and “Brave Enough,” both New York Times bestsellers and the novel “Torch.”
According to the Cheryl Strayed website, “Strayed is the co-host of the New York Times/WBUR podcast Dear Sugars, which originated with her popular Dear Sugar advice column on The Rumpus, and she’s the co-author of The Sweet Spot advice column in the New York Times Thursday Styles section.”
Strayed’s memoir, “Wild,” is also known as The Best Non-Fiction Book of 2012: The Boston Globe Entertainment Weekly and Best Book of the Year: NPR, St. Louis Dispatch and Vogue. Along with it, Strayed is also known to be the winner of the Barnes and Noble Discover Award.
“Wild” was turned into a major motion picture, released in 2014 starring Reese Witherspoon playing Strayed and Laura Dern who plays her mother, Bobbi.
The UW event is free and is based on first come first serve. Auditorium doors will open at 4 p.m. with the start of the event at 5 p.m.
Lemler said, “The funding is coming from a source of the dean’s office and it’s something that they needed to spend out so it’s more of the spending out the money and not worrying about getting a re-income for it. So, there are no tickets for that reason.”
