Mauro Corona
Mauro Corona in October 2013 atPremio Chiara
Born	9 August 1950 (1950-08-09) (age 75) Baselga di Piné
Occupation	Writer Mountaineer Wood carver
Nationality	Italian

Mauro Corona (Baselga di Piné, 9 August 1950), is an Italianwriter,mountaineer andwood carver.

Author of several books, some of which arebestseller, he dedicated himself tomountaineering, by climbing many Italian and foreign peaks and opening over 230climbing routes in theFriulian Dolomites.^[1]

Son of Domenico Corona and Lucia Filippin he was born inBaselga di Piné.^[1][2][3] After the first years of his childhood spent inTrentino, the family returned toErto, the village of origin in theVajont valley, at that time part of theprovince of Udine and then, in 1968, passed to theprovince of Pordenone, where he spent the next few years in the San Rocco district.^[2] Since he was a child, he has followed his father on hunting trips as apoacher and his grandfather on his first climbs.^[4] It was right in those places, where he spent most of his youth, that the passion for mountains andmountaineering grew up in him.^[2][5]

The relationship with his parents was difficult and troubled, due to his father's behavior, considered a crazy and a violent man. For these reasons his mother left home, abandoning him and his brother, gesture that Mauro never forgave.^[2][6][4] To replace her presence, Corona dedicated himself to reading:Tolstoj,Dostoevskij andCervantes were his favorites writers. At the same time he learned the art ofwood sculpture from his grandfather, who was awood carver.^[6]

After attending elementary school inErto, he began the middle school in nearbyLongarone, in theprovince of Belluno.^[2] The 9 October 1963 his life radically changed due to theVajont disaster, which swept away the lower part ofBelluno and the hamlets near the lake betweenVeneto andFriuli, causing over 2,000 deaths.^[7] His family suffered no losses in the disaster, but a few years later he wrote what happened in his novelAspro e dolce.^[4][8]

Together with the youngest of his brothers he moved to the Don Bosco boarding school inPordenone: this was a difficult period for him as nostalgia, the sense of imprisonment and the lack of Erto's woods tormented him constantly.^[4] Mauro never finished his studies at that boarding school.^[5] When the two brothers returned to Erto, Mauro desired to attend theOrtisei's School of Art, but the lack of money forced him to attend the Institute for Survey Marinoni ofUdine because it was free.^[4][6]

Due to his rebel behavior, and since he preferred to readTex in the classroom, instead of following the lessons, he was withdrawn from school.^[4][6] Mauro then found a job as a handyman inManiago. After his little brother's death, he quit this job and went to break marble at the Monte Buscada quarry.^[6] This hard work was relieved by being in contact with the peaks, forests, and meadows that reminded him of his childhood.^[2][8]

He was forced to suspend this job during hismilitary service, which started inL'Aquila, where he was enlisted in theAlpini troops.^[9]

The quarry closed in the 1980s. Corona was then hired as a squaring stonemason.^[4] One day in 1975, Renato Gaiotti, fromSacile, was casually walking in front of Corona's studio in Via Balbi, and noticing several small sculptures, decided to buy them all.^[3][4] Shortly afterwards, Gaiotti commissioned Corona to create a Via Crucis to be donated to the Church of San Giovanni del tempio in Sacile. With the money obtained from the sale, Corona purchased all the necessary equipment for sculpting. He consequently found a master inAugusto Murer ofFalcade who taught him the art and allowed him to enhance his technical and artistic knowledge. In 1975 he organized his first exposition inLongarone.^[3][4]

In that period, Corona didn't neglect his other great passion:climbing. In 1977 he began equipping theErto e Casso cliffs, which even today are a very popular destination for mountaineers from all over the world.^[10] In a few years he climbed the mountains ofFriuli and then went as far asGreenland andCalifornia on the walls ofYosemite Valley. Today a lot of climbing routes bear his signature.^[3][10]

As a boy, Corona was passionate about bobsleigh. Corona was part of the crew that won the bronze medal in the ItalianBobsleigh Championship held in Cervinia in 1972.^[2][11]

His writing career began in 1997, when a journalist friend published some of his stories on the newspaperIl Gazzettino.^[4] Since that time he has published different books, all with moderate success. In hisnovels andshort stories Mauro Corona bring the reader into contact with a world that has almost disappeared: the world of life and traditions in the villages of theVajont Valley, an ecosystem that faced violent upheavals following the tragedy that occurred there.^[12] Characters and echoes of the past resurface through Corona's lines, who faces topics such as man's relationship with nature, with his roots and with the looming economic and technological progress with a passionate and somewhat melancholic gaze.^[13]

Corona continues to alternate moments of writing, wooden sculpture and climbing with conferences, meetings and events and participates in the creation of some documentaries about his life. He took part in the filmVajont (film), playing the bartender Pietro Corona. Among his friends and correspondents there is his coetaneousErri De Luca, a writer and climber too.^[14] In 2002 thecomic writer Paolo Cossi publishedCorona - L'uomo del bosco di Erto forEdizioni Biblioteca dell'Immagine, a comic book that narrates some events told to Cossi by Corona and the adventures that Cossi had to undertake to listen to Corona's stories in person.^[15]

Cani, camosci, cuculi (e un corvo) has been awarded with theCardo d'argento at the 37th edition of thePremio Itas del libro di montagna, an Italian literary award, collected by Corona 29 April 2008.^[16]

The 17 July 2011 the bookLa fine del mondo storto^[13] wins, with 75 preferences, theBancarella Award 2011.^[17] In 2014 he wins theMario Rigoni Stern Award on which he'll say:^[18][19][20]

«For me this award has a different value and not only because Mario Rigoni Stern and his pages moved me [...] When I'll get home tonight and look in the mirror, I'll tell myself that perhaps I made it out of hell.»

His works have been translated into various languages, includingChinese,German andSpanish.^[2]

He was a regular guest onCartabianca, a Rai 3 prime time program hosted byBianca Berlinguer, from 11 September 2018 until 23 September 2020, when he was removed after calling the presenter "hen".^[21] In 2021 he had been reinstated in the program and remained there until the definitive closure on 27 June 2023 to come back in the same role from the following 5 September, moving to Rete 4, another Italian channel, withÈ sempre Cartabianca.^[22]

In September 2021 he performed in the videoclip of the songOh Lord Vaarda Gió byDavide Van De Sfroos andZucchero Fornaciari.^[23]

Mauro Corona is married and has four children: Marianna, Matteo, Melissa and Martina.^[24] He considers himself a believer in God but he doesn't follow any particular religion.^[25] His daughter Marianna Corona is also an author. She published her debut bookFiorire tra le rocce in 2021.^[26]

• Il volo della martora, Torino, Vivalda, 1997, ISBN 88-7808-131-0.
• Finché il cuculo canta, Pordenone, Biblioteca dell'immagine, 1999.
• Gocce di resina, Pordenone, Biblioteca dell'immagine, 2001, ISBN 88-87881-51-0.
• Nel legno e nella pietra, Milano, Mondadori, 2003, ISBN 88-04-50464-1.
• Aspro e dolce, Milano, Mondadori, 2004, ISBN 978-88-045-2731-2.
• Cani, camosci, cuculi (e un corvo), Milano, Mondadori, 2007, ISBN 978-88-04-55542-1.
• Torneranno le quattro stagioni, Milano, Mondadori, 2010, ISBN 978-88-04-60059-6.
• Venti racconti allegri e uno triste, Milano, Mondadori, 2012, ISBN 978-88-04-61623-8.
• I misteri della montagna, Milano, Mondadori, 2016, ISBN 978-88-04-64713-3.

• Gli occhi del bosco. Storie di animali e uomini, Milano, Mondadori, 2012, ISBN 978-88-04-62089-1. [It contains:Cani, camosci, cuculi (e un corvo) andStorie del bosco antico]
• Il bosco racconta, prefazione diErri De Luca, illustrazioni di Mauro e Matteo Corona, Milano, Mondadori, 2015, ISBN 978-88-04-65769-9. [It contains:Storie del bosco antico andTorneranno le quattro stagioni]

• Le voci del bosco, Pordenone, Biblioteca dell'immagine, 1998, ISBN 88-87881-06-5.
• L'ombra del bastone, Milano, Mondadori, 2005, ISBN 978-88-045-4857-7.
• I fantasmi di pietra, Milano, Mondadori, 2006, ISBN 978-88-045-5543-8.
• Storia di Neve, Milano, Mondadori, 2008, ISBN 978-88-04-58111-6.
• Il canto delle manére, Milano, Mondadori, 2009, ISBN 978-88-04-59071-2.
• La fine del mondo storto. Milano: Mondadori. 2010.ISBN 978-88-04-60341-2. - Winner ofPremio Bancarella 2011
• Come sasso nella corrente, Milano, Mondadori, 2011, ISBN 978-88-04-61131-8.
• La voce degli uomini freddi, Milano, Mondadori, 2013, ISBN 978-88-04-63377-8.
• La via del sole, Milano, Mondadori, 2016, ISBN 978-88-04-66930-2.
• Nel muro, Milano, Mondadori, 2018, ISBN 978-88-04-67329-3.
• L'ultimo sorso. Vita di Celio. Milano: Mondadori. 2020.ISBN 978-88-047-3135-1.
• Quattro stagioni per vivere. Milano: Mondadori. 2022.ISBN 978-88-047-4612-6.
• Le cinque porte. Due nipoti e un nonno sui sentieri dei boschi. Un romanzo per tutte le età. Milano: Mondadori. 2023.ISBN 978-88-047-7572-0.
• Le altalene. Milano: Mondadori. 2023.ISBN 978-88-047-6132-7.

• Storie del bosco antico, Milano, Mondadori, 2005, ISBN 978-88-045-4597-2. [collection of 44 fairy tails with the author's drawings]
• La casa dei sette ponti, Milano, Feltrinelli, 2012, ISBN 978-88-07-01907-4.
• Una lacrima color turchese, Milano, Mondadori, 2014, ISBN 978-88-04-64945-8.
• Favola in bianco e nero, Milano, Mondadori, 2015, ISBN 978-88-04-66114-6.

• La montagna. Chiacchierata con ventun giovani all'osteria Gallo Cedrone in una notte di primavera del 2002, with 2 CDs, Pordenone, Biblioteca dell'immagine, 2002, ISBN 88-87881-69-3.
• Un destino nel volo. Vajont 1963, withLuciano Zanelli, Santa Giustina, Polaris, 2003; II ed., Edizioni Filò, 2013; Belluno, Belluno, Banca AntonVeneta, 2013. [about Giovanni Zanelli]
• Vajont: quelli del dopo, Milano, Mondadori, 2006, ISBN 88-04-55817-2.
• Guida poco che devi bere. Manuale a uso dei giovani per imparare a bere, Milano, Mondadori, 2013, ISBN 978-88-04-62503-2.
• Confessioni ultime. Una meditazione sulla vita, la natura, il silenzio, la libertà, with a Giorgio Fornoni's movie in DVD, Milano, Chiarelettere, 2013, ISBN 978-88-6190-428-6; TEA, Milano, 2020.
• Quasi niente, with Luigi Maieron, Milano, Chiarelettere, 2017, ISBN 978-88-619-0906-9.
• Il passo del vento. Sillabario alpino. Milano: Mondadori. 2019.ISBN 978-88-047-0965-7.
• Arrampicare. Una storia di rocce, di sfide e d'amore. Milano: Solferino. 2022.ISBN 978-88-282-0900-3.

• La ballata della donna ertana, Collana Scrittori italiani e stranieri, Milano, Mondadori, 2011, ISBN 978-88-04-60869-1.

• Vajont, directed byRenzo Martinelli (2001).
• La notte dei giochi, directed byRonnie Roselli (2008).
• L'arca di legno, directed byDomenico De Ceglia (TV series, 2019).
• Alberi che camminano, directed byMattia Colombo (Documentary, 2015).

• Cardo d'argento 2008 at the37th Premio Itas del libro di montagna forCani, camosci, cuculi (e un corvo).
• Premio Bancarella 2011 forLa fine del mondo storto.
• Christmas Love 2011 (Christmas Film Festival) "for his boundless love for nature"^[27]
• Premio Mario Rigoni Stern 2014, narrative section, for the work "La voce degli uomini freddi".
• Premio Selezione Campiello 2014^[28]
• Award for the environment 2016 atTignano Festival (Barberino Tavarnelle - Firenze).
• Literary award "La Tore", Isola d'Elba (edizione 2021), already won among others byCamilleri,Vitali andDaverio.

• Wikiquote contiene citazioni di o suMauro Corona
• Wikimedia Commons contiene immagini o altri file suMauro Corona

• "Official website".maurocorona.it (in Italian).
• "Mauro Corona".treccani.it (in Italian).
• "Mondadori".mondadoristore.it (in Italian).

• 1950 births
• Living people
• People from Baselga di Piné
• Bancarella Prize winners
• Children's writers
• Italian-language writers
• Friulian-language writers
• Italian rock climbers

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