Laurel Corona is the author of five historical novels including The Four Seasons: A Novel of Vivaldi’s Venice  (Hyperion), Penelope’s Daughter (Penguin), Finding Emilie (Simon and Schuster) and The Mapmaker’s Daughter (Sourcebooks), focusing on women forgotten or misrepresented in history, and one work of non-fiction, Until Our Last Breath:  A Holocaust Story of Love and Partisan Resistance (St. Martin’s). Her fifth novel, Aloha Wanderwell Takes the Wheel (Sibylline Press), will come out in May 2026.

A retired professor of Humanities at San Diego City College, Laurel has an MA from the University of Chicago and a Ph.D. from the University of California at Davis, both in Literature.  In retirement she now freelances as a cruise lecturer for several luxury lines. A native of Southern California, she is a dual American and Canadian citizen and lives in Victoria, British Columbia. 

“There is only one thing I love more than learning something new, and that is the opportunity to tell other people about it,” Laurel says. “Writing historical novels and cruise lecturing are the perfect way to do both.”