Dr Christine Balint has been a professional writer for more than 20 years. Her most recent book, Water Music, won the 2021 Viva la Novella Prize and was published by Brio Books. Her first novel, The Salt Letters, was shortlisted for the 1998 The Australian / Vogel Literary Award. Her second novel, Ophelia’s Fan, was internationally published in 2004. Christine’s work has been published to critical acclaim in Australia, The United States, Germany and Italy. She was selected as one of Barnes & Noble’s Great New Writers in 2001. 

Christine has been developing a body of work set in eighteenth-century Venice since 2004. In 2018, she received Australia Council Funding to research her new novel, A Still Small Voice, based on a real-life 18th-century Venetian court case. Christine travelled to Venice to research court records as well as explore the known locations for the story. She is currently completing the manuscript.

Christine has a PhD in Creative Arts from The University of Melbourne, where she taught for many years. Christine also taught for 7 years in RMIT’s Graduate Writing Program. She has taught many creative writing courses for institutions including Writers Victoria at the Wheeler Centre, the CAE and Chisholm Institute. Christine is a lecturer in English and Creative Writing at La Trobe University.

Christine is on the advisory board and judging panel for a new literary award, the 20/40 Publishing Prize.  

Here’s Christine discussing The Last Music Keeper of Venice, one of her works in progress.

Video Credit: TAOS Productions. Interviewer and Producer:  Nathan King

©Christine Balint 2022