Robert C. Sibley

Robert Sibley got his start in journalism at the Whitehorse Star in the Yukon in 1977. He joined the Edmonton Journal in 1978. He worked there until 1986, when he moved to the Ottawa Citizen, where he has work since as a reporter, feature writer, opinion page editor, editorial writer, columnist and, now, senior writer. His bylined columns, book reviews and essays have appeared in newspapers and magazines across Canada and the United States. He also holds a Ph.D. in political science from Carleton University where he is an adjunct professor.

He has won more than a dozen awards for his writing, including from the American Academy of Religion, the Religion Newswriters Association and the Canadian Association of Journalists, the North American Travel Journalists Association and the Society of American Travel Writers.

For example, in 2007, he earned the First Place award in opinion writing from the American Academy of Religion. His pilgrimage narrative The Way of Shikoku, which ran as an 11-part series in the Ottawa Citizen in 2005, won the Templeton Religion Story of the Year from the Religion Newswriters Association of America in 2006. His previous pilgrimage story from the Camino de Santiago, published as a nine-part series in the Ottawa Citizen in 2000, won the 2001 Cornell Award from Religion Newswriters Association and the 2001 Lowell Thomas Award from the Society of American Travel Writers Foundation.