Beyond the Book
Born in western
Pennsylvania in 1968, Strayed spent
most of her formative years—from the
age of five until her
mid-twenties—in Minnesota. Torch
takes place in the fictional town of
Midden, Minnesota, based on her
hometown of McGregor. "It's my
literary landscape; my spiritual
home," she says. "No matter how far
I wander, I often travel back to
Minnesota when I sit down to write."Before turning to her first novel, Strayed wrote a number of essays, one of which is titled "Heroin/e" and was included in Best American Essays (2000). It tells of her own experiences...
