Beatrice Alemagna has written and illustrated more than forty books that have been translated in 25 countries. Born in Bologna in 1973, after graduating in Editorial Graphic Design from Isia in Urbino, she moved to Paris in 1997, beginning a career as an author-illustrator, published first in France and then throughout the world. She has created posters for the Georges Pompidou Centre, as well as toys and other objects, and been a jury member of international contests.
In 2006, her book “A Lion in Paris” won the Special Mention for the best picturebook of the year at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair, and in 2007 was awarded a prize at the Taipei International Book Exhibition. 2011 saw her awarded the Andersen Italia Illustrator of the Year Prize. Her work has been shown in numerous solo exhibitions at venues like Munich’s JugenBibliotek, the Montreuil (Paris) Children’s Book Fair, the American Society of Illustrators in New York, and at Bologna’s Archiginnasio History Museum. Beatrice has been selected seven times for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award and twice for the Andersen International Prize.
She has illustrated authors like David Grossmann, Agota Kristof, Raymond Quenau, Aldous Huxley, Guillaume Apollinaire, David Almond, Astrid Lindgren and, on several occasions, Gianni Rodari, the author she considers one of her spiritual fathers. Her books have been published by Albin Michel, Topipittori, Harper Collins, Tate Publisher, l’Ecole des loisirs, Thames & Hudson, Enchanted Lion, Mondadori, Hélium, MoMA, Seuil, Autrement , Gallimard, Phaïdon, Casterman and Walker Books.
In 2015, Huffington Post included “A Lion in Paris” on its list of Classic Children’s Books. In the same year, two of her books – “Gisèle de verre” and “Jo singe garçon” – were included in Martin Salisbury’s “100 Great Picture Books for Children”. In 2017, the picturebook “On a Magical Do-nothing Day” was awarded the New York Society of Illustrators Gold Medal, the Prix Landerneau, the Moulins Grand Prix for illustration, listed among the ten best picturebooks of the year by The New York Times (“Gisèle de verre” would be listed in 2019), awarded the British School Library Association Prize in 2018 and Germany’s Huckepack Prize in 2019. Her “What is a Child?” (Topipittori 2008) was purchased in 2013 by the Mexican government for distribution throughout schools in Mexico, and in 2018 became a school book for all primary schools in Hiroshima, Japan. In recent years, Beatrice has given herself over to painting. In 2021 her work will be exhibited in two solo shows in Paris and in an exhibition in Wanås, Sweden.