Bruno Tognolini was born in Cagliari in 1951. Now he lives, when he is not traveling around Italy in his thousand meetings with readers, between Bologna and Lecce.
After five years of classical high school and four years of medicine on the Island, his artistic education took place in Bologna: from the DAMS degree in Communications and Entertainment (thesis with Giuliano Scabia and Andrea Canevaro) to the long season of theater (1980-1990), where he collaborated as a playwright with Marco Baliani, Marco Paolini, Gabriele Vacis, and other artists and groups of the “grassroots” theater of those years. In ’90 the range of his writings opened from theater for children to television: for four years he was among the authors of the RAI program for children L’ALBERO AZZURRO, and from ’99 he was the creator with Mela Cecchi and for 12 years co-author with others of LA MELEVISIONE, a daily RAI program for the little ones. In ’94, with a videogame produced by RAI and Philips on L’Albero Azzurro, a short season as an author of digital media began.
He writes projects and texts for various multimedia and interactive works: including in ’95 the CD-rom RIMELANDIA, with original nursery rhymes by him and Roberto Piumini (Mondadori); in ’96 the adventure game NIRVANA X-ROM (Cecchi Gori), based on the film “Nirvana” by G. Salvatores. In ’98 a tangential encounter with cinema: he writes the initial nursery rhymes and the Italian lyrics of the songs for the film STORIA DI UNA GABBIANELLA by Enzo D’Alò: an experience repeated in 2023 with the new film MARY E LO SPIRITO DI MEZZANOTTE.
Good last on the list, but first in his predilection and incessant in his production, the books: 67 titles from ’91 to today, novels, stories and poems “for kids, for children and for their grown-ups”, published with Salani, Giunti, RCS, Gallucci, Panini, il Castoro, Fatatrac, Topipittori, Edizioni Gruppo Abele, Anima Mundi, and others. Twice Andersen Prize, in 2007 and 2011.
Elsa Morante Giovani Award in 2008 with the novel LUNAMOONDA. Her latest novel, IL GIARDINO DEI MUSI ETERNI, is Book of the Year at Fahrenheit Radio Tre (the first time for a book for children), a finalist for the Premio Strega Ragazzi, and winner of the LiBeR Best Book Award 2017. Her books have sold around four hundred thousand copies in Italy.
