Christine Balint

Dr. Christine Balint serves as a Lecturer in English and Creative Writing at La Trobe University, teaching courses including Advanced Fiction (CPW3ADF), Reading for Writers (CPW1001), and Writing Fiction (ENG2WFI). With over two decades of professional writing experience, she contributes significantly to creative writing pedagogy and literary scholarship.

Her educational background features a PhD in Creative Arts from The University of Melbourne, where she also taught for many years, complemented by seven years instructing in RMIT University's Graduate Writing Program and workshops for Writers Victoria, the Wheeler Centre, CAE, and Chisholm Institute.

Dr. Balint's research specializes in historical and biographical fiction that resurrects marginalized women's narratives from historical records. Her current manuscript, A Single Witness, investigates an 18th-century Venetian court case, building on her longstanding body of work set in Venice since 2004. This focus manifests in meticulously researched narratives that bridge literary artistry with historical recovery.

Her publications reveal a consistent trajectory in historical fiction with international recognition, evolving from her Vogel Award-shortlisted debut The Salt Letters (2001) through the globally published Ophelia's Fan (2005) to the prize-winning novella Water Music (2021), demonstrating increasing sophistication in exploring women's historical experiences.

Dr. Balint's achievements include:

• Viva la Novella Prize (2021) for Water Music
• Shortlisting for The Australian / Vogel Literary Award (1998)
• Selection as Barnes & Noble’s Great New Writers (2001)
• Australia Council Funding grant (2018) for Venice-based research

Her grant-funded research for A Single Witness involved archival work in Venetian court records and location exploration, while her ongoing literary contributions extend to serving on the advisory board and judging panel for the 20/40 Publishing Prize. Though no formal lab affiliations are documented, her work integrates immersive historical research with creative practice.