Layla Fallah is a literary assistant at BookEnds who focuses exclusively on visual storytelling, building a diverse list of illustrators, cover artists, and graphic novelists across all age categories — not a traditional text-first agent.
In brief
Layla Fallah is a literary assistant, not a full agent — they assist agents Emily Forney and James McGowan and help manage 100+ clients at BookEnds.
Their wishlist is entirely illustration-driven: they seek illustrators for board books, picture books, chapter books, cover art, and graphic novels — writers without illustration skills should not query.
The single most important qualifier on Fallah's wishlist: text-only creators are explicitly not being considered at this time. Author-illustrators are welcome; solo authors are not.
Fallah co-directs PB Rising Stars, a mentorship for underrepresented creators — their commitment to diversity and representation is structural, not just rhetorical, and will likely flavor the list they build.
Because Fallah is in an early list-building phase as a literary assistant, there is no confirmed public sales record yet — querying now could mean getting in early on a rising voice in children's and illustration publishing.
Lately
Fallah's current agency page emphasizes they are actively building a diverse illustration roster and are not seeking text-only creators — a clear and definitive scope statement for their submissions.
What Layla is looking for
Fallah is actively building their illustration roster and is especially interested in picture book and board book illustrators. Author-illustrators should include a full dummy with their portfolio submission. Diverse storytellers and underrepresented voices are a clear priority given Fallah's personal mission and co-direction of PB Rising Stars.
Chapter book illustrators and cover artists are also on Fallah's active wish list. This signals an interest in the full children's and YA commercial spectrum, from early readers through teen-facing cover illustration.
Fallah welcomes graphic novelists across all age categories — children's, middle grade, YA, and adult. Given their dual role as a Kurdish author and artist, visual narrative with culturally specific or underrepresented perspectives is a reasonable fit signal.
Not the right fit
Taste fingerprint
How to query Layla
Submit a portfolio, not a query letter — Fallah is building an illustration roster, so your visual work is the pitch. Lead with your strongest images.
If you are an author-illustrator, include a complete dummy with your portfolio submission — this is explicitly requested and omitting it will likely hurt your chances.
Do not submit if you are a text-only writer. The exclusion is unambiguous; sending a manuscript without illustration work will not be considered and wastes everyone's time.
Lean into diversity and representation in your cover letter. Fallah is a Kurdish author and artist who co-directs a mentorship for underrepresented creators — cultural specificity and authentic diverse perspectives are clearly central to their list-building vision.
Because Fallah assists Emily Forney and James McGowan, their broader client ecosystem skews toward children's publishing and illustration. Aligning your portfolio with that world (picture books, MG, YA) is likely to resonate more than adult-only graphic work, though adult graphic novels are not excluded.
Verify the live submission form status before sending — query windows for literary assistants building new lists can shift quickly.