Lovelace was born in Toco, Trinidad and Tobago, in 1932. He worked at the Trinidad Guardian as a proofreader from 1953 to 1954, and then for the Department of Forestry and the Department of Agriculture. He studied at Howard College from 1966 to 1967, and received an MA in English from Johns Hopkins University in 1974. In 1980, he became writer-in-residence at the University of Iowa. He taught at the Federal City College (now University of the District of Columbia), Washington, DC, from 1971 to 1973, and from 1977 to 1987, he lectured in literature and creative writing at the University of the West Indies at St Augustine. He is a columnist for the Trinidad Express, and contributes to a number of periodicals, including Voices, South, and Wasafiri.