Angela Waldron

Angela Waldron is an award-winning writer and photographer whose love of adventure has taken her across the United States, Europe, and Asia in the search for traditional occupations and mystical religious traditions. She received her BA in Anthropology and an IDC in the Classics from the University of Maine and did four years of fieldwork in Turkey researching traditional occupations and documenting the country’s vast historical and archaeological legacy.

Close to home, Waldron writes about growing up as a lobsterman’s daughter on the Maine coast. In 2018 she was a Martin Dibner Fellowship Award recipient and worked with Elizabeth Peavey exploring the world of memoir. Her article Awakening was published by Down East in 2016, The Catch in 2017, and selected as a finalist in the Maine Literary Awards Nonfiction short-works category in 2017.

Her articles on traditional occupations range from The Ancient Sport of Greased Wrestling Renaissance, fall 2010; Meerschaum: The White Gold of Turkey, Renaissance, summer 2011; Pleasures of the Hookah, Pipes and Tobacco, Fall 2011; Camel Wrestling, Renaissance, winter 2012; The Ancient Fuel: Dried Dung, Renaissance, spring 2013; Weaving a Goat Hair Rug, Renaissance, spring 2013; Copper Cauldrons, Renaissance, 2013; Sacred Breath, Holy Breath, Kindred Spirit Spring 2014; Painted Wagons of Anatolia, Renaissance 2015; and From Caliph to King: Granada’s Tradition of Tarecea, Renaissance, fall 2017.

Her articles on mystical traditions and spiritual pilgrimages span the globe: In Turkey she visited holy sites found in The Mystical Love of Rabia of Basra, Kindred Spirit, summer 2011; A Pilgrimage to Mt. Ararat, Kindred Spirit, summer 2015, Honorable mention winner in 2016 Writer’s Digest Competition (magazine feature category); and A Pilgrimage to the Tomb of Haci Bektash Veli, Kindred Spirit, fall 2017.

From Mongolia, she writes about her visit to a sacred shrine in Blessings of a Mother, Kindred Spirit, fall 2012, second place winner in 2013 annual Writer’s Digest competition (magazine feature category). From Tibet, she visits the sacred temples in Forbidden Kingdom, Kindred Spirit, fall 2014, Honorable mention winner in 2015 annual Writer’s Digest Competition (magazine feature category). And from Cambodia, her Spirituality in the Ruins, Kindred Spirit, winter 2017, explores the inner world of the great temples of Angkor Wat.