Author to speak at bookstore

Cheryl Strayed has earned strong reviews for her debut novel, "Torch," the story of a family struck down by fate and how it learns to heal.

Strayed will lead a writing workshop called "Making the Leap from Life to Art" at Paulina Springs Books in Sisters.

The workshop, which carries a $10 fee, runs from 12:45 to 3 p.m. on Saturday, March 3. The workshop is open to writers of all levels and will focus on how writers transform autobiographical material into fiction.

Pre-registration is recommended. To pre-register, call Paulina Springs Books at 549-0866 or e-mail [email protected]

In "Torch," Teresa Rae Wood is a local celebrity in the town of Midden, Minnesota. Her popular radio show, Modern Pioneers!, a kind of hippie Prairie Home Companion, is an eternal embarrassment to her two almost-grown children, Claire and Joshua, and a source of amused pride to her common-law husband, Bruce. When Teresa summons Claire and Joshua home unexpectedly, they are floored by her devastating news: Teresa, only 38, is dying of cancer; seven weeks later she is gone.

Now the mundane irritations and small betrayals of family relationships loom dangerously large, as Claire, Joshua and Bruce - retreating into private worlds of sorrow just when they need one another the most - seek comfort elsewhere. To his children's disbelief, Bruce quickly marries their next-door neighbor, a lonely cow inseminator. Claire drops out of college to devote herself to keeping her mother's memory alive back home, while Joshua becomes a drug dealer and a teenage father.

Exploring each character's distinct way of coping, Strayed shows her understanding of the emotional discord, desperation and moments of levity that accompany the grief of losing a loved one.

Cheryl Strayed's award-winning stories and essays have appeared in more than a dozen magazines, including the New York Times Magazine, Allure, and The Sun. Widely anthologized, her work is featured in The Best New American Voices 2003 and has been selected twice for The Best American Essays. Raised in Minnesota, Strayed holds an MFA from Syracuse University. She lives in Portland with her husband and their two children.