More About Alliah L. Agostini (She/Her)
Languages: English
Buffalo, NY native Alliah (uh-lee-uh) L. Agostini (ah-go-stin-E) has marketed everything from iconic brands to scrappy start-ups, but motherhood helped her return to her first love: children's literature. She writes to spread joy, truth, and to help more children see themselves reflected on the page.
Alliah is the author of many picture books and easy readers for children including Junior Library Guild Selection BIG TUNE: Rise of the Dancehall Prince (starred reviews, Kirkus and Publisher's Weekly, NYPL and Chicago Public Library Best Picture Book of 2023), Black KidLit Award-winning The Juneteenth Story: Celebrating the End of Slavery in the United States, Oprah Winfrey: A Little Golden Book Biography, The Juneteenth Cookbook, Great Idea Malia, Blexi, Play!, the upcoming Scarecited on the First Day of School, No Cat Like Tac, Art's Art, and more.
A proud member of KidLit in Color, Black Creators HQ, the Picture Book Sunrays, and SCBWI, she and her work have been featured on Oprah Daily, Essence.com, TODAY with Hoda + Jenna, Morning in America, Good Housekeeping, CNN, and NPR.
Alliah resides in New Jersey with her husband and two children. She has an A.B. and an M.B.A. from Harvard.
You can find Alliah online at:
Alliah’s strengths are…
Cutting the fat to get to the heart of your story.
Questioning and probing the veracity of your story - even fiction - to help readers connect with your work.
Translating big concepts to digestible ones for young audiences
Enhancing or paring down text to help it be a treat for your future illustrator
Developing catchy hooks and injecting unexpected humor
What Alliah is looking for…
Alliah is looking for a mentee who may be relatively prolific, but is willing to do the fun but hard work of prioritizing each of their manuscripts and hone them to get them to their very best- no matter how long it takes. Quitters need not apply.
She'd love an author-only mentee with a visual mind who wants to hone their work to help it be an incredible foundation for its future illustrator. Alliah especially welcomes people who came into writing a little later in life and may be more self-taught vs. a formal MFA.
She would prefer a mentee who genuinely likes children (you'd be surprised, not all kidlit authors do!), respects their intellect and ability to handle bigger concepts than we may realize, and also wants to give them all of the joy and validation their beautiful hearts and minds desire.
If you write in rhyme but have limited experience or desire to write in rhyme, she's not the best fit to teach, but may be able to help coach, tweak, and hone the work of those with some experience.
She's also here to coach someone through the querying and agent consideration process. Alliah can also talk a bit about the book marketing and PR hustle based on her experience as a marketer and now an author.
A Note from Alliah:
“Write what feels most authentic to you - not what you think the market wants... or what I want, for that matter. If what you want to write is *genuinely* a match for what I'm looking for, fantastic. Otherwise, don't force the fit.”
Alliah’s Picture Books
Alliah writes in other markets, so to check out her full catalog please visit her website.
THE JUNETEENTH STORY, written by Alliah L. Agostini and illustrated by Sawyer Cloud
THE JUNETEENTH COOKBOOK, written by Alliah L. Agostini and Chef Taffy Elrod, illustrated by Sawyer Cloud
BIG TUNE, written by Alliah L. Agostini and illustrated by Shamar Knight-Justice
OPRAY WINFREY: A LITTLE GOLDEN BOOK BIOGRAPHY, written by Alliah L. Agostini and illustrated by Tara Nicole Whitaker
GREAT IDEA MALIA!, written by Alliah L. Agostini and illustrated by Olivia de Castro
Alliah’s Upcoming Picture Books
NO CAT LIKE TAC, written by Alliah L. Agostini and illustrated by Charles Santoso
SCARECITED ON THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL, written by Alliah L. Agostini and illustrated by Lala Watkins
If Alliah created a Visual Wish List, it would be made up of…
*Unless otherwise stated, the below serves as a wish list only. Each mentor is excited about the opportunity to find a manuscript they can’t stop thinking about. Please apply if you think you’d be a good fit.
Black Boy Joy vibes like Carole Boston Weatherford and Reggie Brown's Bros
Friendship stories like Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow's and Shahrzad Maydani's Sister Friend
Ironic humor of X. Fang's We Are Definitely Human
Stories of inter/cross-cultural connectedness like Jackie Azúa Kramer's Empanadas for Everyone
Fun, messy main characters with heart - like a 7 year old version of Ava from Abbott Elementary
Contemporary observational humor of TV show Bluey
Alliah is a good fit for…
Black Voices & Black Joy!
Human protagonists
Select anthropomorphic characters with a fresh voice and vibe
Humor with heart
Contemporary Fiction
Light Potty Humor
Punny Humor (haha!)
Rhyming Verse
Non-fiction
Prolific writers
Alliah is not a good fit for…
Grief
War
Sad Stories
Fables
Forced Rhyme
Anything preachy
*Please don’t submit any stories including death.
Who can apply to Alliah? Unagented and Agented authors.
Click below to register for our Mentee Announcement (on Zoom) on May 15, 2025 at 8:00pm Eastern Time!