Day 6: Alliah L. Agostini

by Tonya Ellis | Posted on

 Alliah L. Agostini has marketed everything from iconic brands to scrappy start-ups, but motherhood helped this Harvard AB and MBA school graduate 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 28 Days Later Day 6 honoree. 

ALLIAH L. AGOSTINI 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, WE DIG FOSSILS 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 is a native of Buffalo, New York and resides in New Jersey with her husband and two children. Learn more about Alliah at  https://www.alliahagostini.com/.

The Journey: My Path to Publishing

I was an avid reader as a kid. My mother still talks about how excited I was to finally learn how to read once I started Kindergarten- once I did, I took off. Picture books were my happy place. I lived for Dick Bruna’s Miffy books, The Berenstain Bears, and any joke book. My mother made sure to purchase any book she could find with a Black protagonist – there were few in the 80’s. 

Somehow, along my educational journey, I eventually became more of a math person – and I never thought of myself as much of a writer. But I loved the intersection of words and pictures – as I entered high school most of the reading I did beyond school was magazines (and 1990’s YA – couldn’t get enough of Flyy Girl!), which I adored. After college I worked in magazine publishing, albeit more on the sales side, but always lusted after the more creative editorial side. Realizing this need to scratch my creative itch and satisfy my mathematical interests, I went to business school with the hope of being able to bring those two things together. I wound up working in the consumer products marketing industry, working first for Procter & Gamble on the Tampax brand, and next eos Products, then a new company with egg shaped lip balm. 

When my first child was born I lived for story time at the library – as a new mom, I think I went to story time just as much for building community as I did for the kids. It was a treat to see how many more books there were featuring families that looked like mine, but I started to realize how few, especially in the traditional publishing space, were actually written or illustrated by Black folks. By this time I had transitioned into freelance marketing consulting, and with every project, I tried to integrate a bit of a writing element.

But I had ideas for books that kept nagging at me. One was related to a life-long struggle from my first day of anything – making sure my name was pronounced properly. At that time, I had seen books about name pronunciation related to first generation kids, but never with a Black protagonist. I wrote a book that, honestly, wasn’t very good, but I started writing more and more until I built a small body of work and had this nagging urge to figure out the best way to get my books published – self-published or traditionally. 

The Back Story: How I Got “The Deal” (a continuation of the above)

I joined SCBWI, attended some virtual conferences and had some editor critiques, but through a chance introduction, I had the fortune to join a picture book critique group with a group of published authors. I’d show up each month with a different manuscript, which they helped me realize was not typical (but not a bad thing, either!) I started querying a couple of manuscripts, one a rhyming picture book, but to no avail. 

One of my critique partners, who I now call a ‘frientor’ (friend/mentor) referred me to her agent, but I hadn’t yet received a response. I brought the rhyming manuscript back to my critique group, and a ‘what if’ question about the manuscript that prompted some mind travel to the stories my husband used to tell about growing up in a Jamaican household in Brooklyn. His fondest memory was the big parties his family hosted, although he was too shy to dance, and would hang back and pick up bottles and cans for coin return instead. (spoiler alert: he’s the best dancer I know). 

It sparked an idea for Big Tune, which I promptly hammered out and read to him. We both knew it was different, special, and something we’d want our own Caribbean-American kids (and others like them!) to be able to read, something we would’ve loved to read as kids ourselves. I made more tweaks and shared with my friendtor, who also really loved it. She sent it as a follow up submission to her agent, and also to another via a referral. Her agent passed it along to another agent she thought might be a better fit, while I simultaneously pitched it in a Twitter pitch contest, where it received some interest that helped nudge the process along. 

Ultimately I received two offers of representation, and the agent I chose was also an author who writes in rhyme, so she coached me to tighten the rhyme and rhythm, to get it into submission shape – it was close, but admittedly, I’m a classically trained MBA, not MFA, so it needed some additional work. A couple of weeks after I signed for representation, we put it on submission, and it piqued the interest of Janine O’Malley, Executive Editor at FSG Young Readers, who offered a two book pre-empt deal. BIG TUNE released in 2023, and the second book in this deal releases in June 2025! I now have six books out and eight more under contract. 

 

 

 

 

THE BUZZ: Reviews and Media Links

Author Profiles:

Big Tune Reviews

The Juneteenth Cookbook

The Juneteenth Story

Blexi, Play!

Connect with Alliah on Social Media: 

Instagram – @alliago

One thought on “Day 6: Alliah L. Agostini”

  1. The Juneteenth Cookbook is one I’ve been looking forward to digging into! We have had so little time to officially celebrate this as an American holiday – long may it reign.

    I love the word “scarecited.” I think that’s so relatable. 😁

    Reply

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