Dear Sugar

Dear Sugar is the advice column from which the enclosed letters and responses originate. Dear Sugar was initially conceived of by the writer Stephen Elliott when he launched the online literature community, The Rumpus (3). When Dear Sugar began, Steve Almond acted as Sugar. Fearing his incapacity to maintain the persona he had created, he invited Cheryl Strayed to take over as Sugar. Ever since, Strayed has operated the column.

Kittens

In "Reach," Sugar uses the story of the kittens she found to encourage Ruler of a Fallen Empire. While she and her first husband were living in a Brooklyn apartment, they heard a noise in the walls. Determined to discover its source, they ripped open the closet ceiling one night to find two starving kittens. Their discovery and the kittens' survival act as throughways to Sugar's thoughts about change, strength, and empowerment.

Stones

In “The Black...