About Robert

Robert Ward is a writer and traveller with a passion for pilgrimages. He is the author of Virgin Trails (Key Porter, 2002), an agnostic’s guide to the legends and worship of the Virgin Mary; and All the Good Pilgrims (Thomas Allen, 2007), a lighthearted account of his several walks on the Camino de Santiago pilgrim road.

Robert’s freelance travel articles have appeared in The Globe and Mail, The LA Times, The Chicago Tribune, and other major newspapers. His short stories and essays have been featured in literary journals including Queen’s Quarterly. He studied at the University of Toronto (BA: English Lit, Christianity and Culture, Italian) and the University of Western Ontario (MA: English Lit), and taught English for several years in Japan.

Robert lives in Toronto.

More About Robert

• First overseas trip: Eurailing from Ireland to Italy (courtesy the Ontario Student Assistance Program)
• Perhaps the only atheist to win the St. Michael’s College Gold Medal in Religious Studies.
• First Camino: 1999. Most recent: 2018. In recent years, has sampled the Camino de Madrid and the Caminho Portugues.
• Born in Toronto; hopes to die elsewhere
• Claims to be multilingual
• Does his best writing in coffee shops. His worst, too