Michelle Lovric

Michelle Lovric is a novelist, editor and poet, specialising in Venice, art and the history of medicine. Her first novel Carnevale (2001) addresses the art of portrait painting and the complex triangle of relationships between the artist, the subject and the viewer. The Floating Book, which relates the perilous birth of printing in Venice, was a WH Smith Read of the Week. The Remedy, a mystery set against the background of 18th-century quack medicine, was longlisted for the 2005 Orange prize. In The Book of Human Skin (2010) Lovric returned to art, with a plot revolving around a portrait of a dead nun in Peru. The novel, which unflinchingly explores Holy Anorexia, skin disease and bibliomania, was featured on Channel 4’s Book Club in 2011. Two of Lovric’s poems were shortlisted for the 2013 Bridport prize.

Lovric’s novels for children — The Undrowned Child, The Mourning Emporium, Talina in the Tower and The Fate in the Box — merge the real history of Venice with invented elements, including mermaids and ghosts. She teaches Guardian masterclasses on how to write for children and undertakes structural edits of adult and children’s fiction for the Writers’ Workshop.

Her work as an RLF Fellow at the Courtauld intensified her interests both in teaching writing skills and in art history, especially where it meets literature. During her fellowship, she helped to establish a literary group at the Courtauld. Michelle Lovric is active in Venetian affairs, historical and modern, dividing her time between London and Venice.