Beatrice Alemagna was born in Bologna, Italy. As a child she admired Gianni Rodari’s books, the images of Bruno Munari and Emanuele Luzzati and she also made books of her own. At the age of eight she decided that once grown up she would become a “painter of novels”.
Having struggled with Greek and Latin at school, she then attended the school for graphics in Urbino (ISIA). In 1996 she sent her drawings to the illustration competition “Figures Futur” in Montreuil (Paris) and won first prize. In 1998 she started publishing with “editions du Seuil” and began working as a poster designer for the Centre Pompidou in Paris, a collaboration that continues to this day.
She has been awarded the following prizes: Figures Futures in Montreuil (France), Attention talent FNAC (France), Prix Octogones (France), Andersen Prize (Italy), Prix Chronos (France), twice selected for the Prix Baobab, salon du livre Montreuil (France), Special Mention at the Bologna Ragazzi Award (Italy), Illustrated Book Prize in Rueil (France), Book Prize in Taipei (Taiwan).
Her work has been translated into Spanish, Italian, English, Dutch, Czech, Slovenian, Greek, Taiwanese, Korean, Portuguese, Brazilian-Portuguese, Chinese and Japanese.
Her twenty books are published by: Le Seuil jeunesse, Autrement jeunesse, Gallimard jeunesse, Panama, Didier jeunesse, Thierry Magnier, Rue du Monde, Skyfish Graphix (Japan), Topipittori (Italy) and Phaïdon (England, Italy, France, Spain and Germany).
She has also had solo exhibitions in Paris, Bordeaux, Charleville, Munich, Pau, St. Paul, Roubaix, Bologna, Reims, Cherbourg, Lisbon, Bobigny, Tokyo, Sapporo and Kyoto.
In 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008 she was the featured artist in: Le Monde des livres (France), Elle (Italy), Elle (France), Hamelin (Italy), La Repubblica (Italy), Epok-Fnac (France), Varoom (UK), Vogue (Italy), Vogue (Japan), Illustration (Japan), Andersen (Italy).
For a few months she has been directed an art and picture books collection for the RMN (National Museums Assembly in France), for the adults-children and the children-adults. She called the collection “Ramino” (“little bough” in Italian).