Carol Cram speaks about the places where art, fiction, and travel meet.

She’s the author of five award-winning novels about artists, composers, and actresses, the founder of Art In Fiction, a curated database of 2,700+ novels inspired by the arts, and the writer behind Artsy Traveler, where she plans entire trips around paintings and calls it research.

Talks

Painting with Words: Writing Fiction Inspired by Art

What happens when your protagonist’s day job is creating masterpieces? Drawing on her novels about a fourteenth-century Tuscan painter, a nineteenth-century concert pianist, and a Georgian-era actress, Carol explores the craft of putting art at the center of fiction: researching historical art practices, writing about creative work without boring the reader, and why artists make such irresistible (and difficult) protagonists.

Best for: writing conferences, workshops, libraries, book festivals

Who Owns the Story? Real Lives in Historical Fiction

Novelists borrow real people all the time. When is it fair game, and when is it trespassing? Building on her panel at the Historical Novel Society conference in Maynooth, Ireland, Carol walks through a practical framework for deciding how much liberty a novelist can take with a historical figure, with case studies from published fiction and her own work.

Best for: writing conferences, historical fiction events, university audiences

2,700 Novels About Art: Lessons from Building Art In Fiction

Carol has spent years cataloguing every novel she can find that’s inspired by the arts, from architecture to textile arts to music. This talk is a guided tour of what all that reading reveals: which art forms novelists love most, which are strangely neglected, and what our appetite for stories about creative lives says about us.

Best for: book clubs, libraries, arts organizations, festivals

Traveling for Art: Build Your Next Trip Around What You Love

Forget the top-ten checklist. Carol has spent five decades traveling Europe (and beyond) for art, and shares how to design a trip around the paintings, buildings, and performances that matter to you: choosing destinations, avoiding museum fatigue, and finding the small collections the crowds miss.

Best for: museums, galleries, libraries, travel and lifestyle events, community groups

Book Clubs

Reading one of Carol’s novels with your book club? She would love to join the conversation. Carol visits book clubs in person in the Vancouver area and by video anywhere in the world, and yes, she’ll answer the “is that character based on a real person?” question honestly. Email carol@carolcram.com to arrange a visit.

Discussion questions for your club: The Towers of Tuscany and A Woman of Note. Questions for the other novels are coming soon.

About Carol

Carol Cram is the award-winning author of five novels about artists, including The Towers of Tuscany and A Woman of Note, founder of Art In Fiction, a database of 2,700+ novels inspired by the arts, and host of The Art In Fiction Podcast. She writes about arts-focused travel at Artsy Traveler. A college educator for over two decades and author of dozens of textbooks, Carol lives on Bowen Island, British Columbia.

• Panelist, Historical Novel Society Conference, Maynooth, Ireland (2026)
• Five award-winning novels: Chaucer Grand Prize, two Goethe Awards, HNS Editor’s Choice, starred Publishers Weekly review
• Host, The Art In Fiction Podcast, with guests including Alka Joshi, Natasha Lester, and Pip Williams
• Educator at Capilano University for 20+ years; author of 60+ textbooks

Book Carol

Carol speaks in person and by video, and is based near Vancouver, BC. She offers keynotes, workshops, and panel appearances, and is happy to tailor any talk to your audience. To book Carol or ask a question, email carol@carolcram.com. High-resolution photos are available on the Media Assets page.