[1] Novik taught literature and creative writing at Langara College in Vancouver, wrote reviews and articles on poetry, and now belongs to the fiction writing group, SPiN, which includes Jen Sookfong Lee and June Hutton.
Mary Novik is the author of two novels set in the past, Conceit and Muse, in which fiction and fact are creatively mingled.
[2] Novik is engaged in an "ongoing exploration of minor characters in the lives of great figures of literature" [3] and is part of the current "boom" in historical fiction in Canada.
[6] Other fictional characters based on historical people are Donne's wife Ann More, the diarist Samuel Pepys, and the fisherman Izaak Walton.
Canada Reads named Conceit one of the Top 40 Essential Canadian Novels of the Decade.