At an event last night, author Cheryl Strayed revealed that she is the writer behind the “Dear Sugar” column at The Rumpus.
People have speculated for months about the identity of the pseudonymous advice columnist at the online literary journal. Strayed is the author of Torch and the forthcoming memoir, Wild.
The New Yorker‘s Book Bench blog has an interview with Strayed: “My friend Steve Almond had been writing the column and he no longer wanted to do it, so he e-mailed me and asked if I’d like to take it over. It just so happened that I was in the midst of this tiny lull in my writing life—only days before, I’d sent the first draft of my memoir Wild to my editor in New York, and I was waiting for her notes. So when Steve asked I thought, ‘Why not?’ I said yes within about thirty seconds of receiving his e-mail and then about thirty seconds later I thought of all the reasons I really should’ve said no.” (Link via Sarah Weinman)