She will discuss memoir ‘Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail’
Henrico County’s long-running literary event All Henrico Reads will return Thursday, March 28, with bestselling and award-winning author Cheryl Strayed discussing her 2012 memoir “Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail.”
Strayed will appear at 7 p.m. at the Henrico Sports & Events Center, 11000 Telegraph Road. The event is free and open to the public, with no tickets required. Strayed’s presentation will be followed by book sales and signings.
“Wild” was a yearslong New York Times Bestseller and an Oprah Book Club selection. In 2014, it was adapted into an Academy Award-nominated film, starring Reese Witherspoon.
“We are honored to have Cheryl Strayed as our author for All Henrico Reads and to welcome our enthusiastic community of readers to the new Henrico Sports and Events Center,” HCPL Director Barbara Weedman said. “We are grateful to our Friends of Henrico County Public Library and Henrico County Public Schools for the wonderful and enduring partnership that makes this exciting event possible each year. We hope you will come out and enjoy a great evening with us.”
In “Wild,” Strayed explores themes of connection, resilience and love following the sudden loss of her beloved mother as well as her family drifting apart. Seeking solace, she considers hiking by herself across the Pacific Crest Trail. Unprepared and underestimating the magnitude of her decision, she begins the journey from California to Washington. Working through her grief step by step on the trail, she emerges transformed.
Strayed’s 2012 collection of essays “Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar” has been adapted into a Hulu series. Her books have been translated into 40 languages, and her essays and other writings have appeared in numerous publications.
More information on All Henrico Reads as well as book discussions and other programs related to this year’s title and its themes is available at henricolibrary.org/ahr.
Praise for “Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail”
Wild is “uplifting, but not in the way of many memoirs […] This book is as loose and sexy and dark as an early Lucinda Williams song. It’s got a punk spirit and makes an earthy and American sound.”
– Dwight Garner, New York Times
“Big-hearted, keen-eyed, lyrical, precise…Cheryl Strayed reminds us in every line that if defeat and despair are part of human experience, so are kindness, patience, and transcendence.”
– George Saunders
“Cheryl Strayed is a courageous, gritty, and deceptively elegant writer.”
– Pam Houston
“Cheryl Strayed needed to be alone in the vast American outdoors, but she also needed to tell us about it. The film adaptation of her book — itself already a classic of wilderness writing and modern feminism — provides another reason to be grateful that she did.”
– A.O. Scott, New York Times
“Strayed gives the impression of tapping raw emotion while at the same time exerting tremendous authorial control. Her carefully honed sentences are as sharp as knives.”
– Bernard Cooper
