Tanner Olson is a poet, author, and speaker. He has a book soon to be released with Zonderkids, on all the things we can pray to God.

His poetry is extremely accessible, not high or academic, but lowly and comforting. Reading it feels like receiving comfort from a friend. His first children's book reflects that, as he's encouraging children on bringing all of their cares to God.

In this interview, he talks about the struggle he and his wife have with infertility, and watching all of their friends have kids, and getting to know their kids, and wanting to create a gift for these families in their lives. 

Since then, they adopted their son, and he's become a father, and he talks about learning through all of this more about who God is, and his heart for us.

Poetry and children's books overlap so much as they both require carefully chosen, few words that are packed with meaning and reach the heart. And as a bonus, as adults read books to children, it impacts them as well. 

Tanner is one of our favorite people, and chatting with him is always full of laughter as well as profound thoughts. 

Show Notes:

• Support 1517 Podcast Network

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• 1517 Events Schedule

• 1517 Academy - Free Theological Education

What’s New from 1517:

• Celebrate 2,000 Episodes of Christian History Almanac!

• The Impossible Prize: A Theology of Addiction by Donavan Riley

• Ditching the Checklist by Mark Mattes

• Broken Bonds: A Novel of the Reformation, Book 1 of 2 by Amy Mantravadi

More from the hosts:

• Gretchen Ronnevik

• Katie Koplin

• Tanner's website
• Tanner's new book:  All The Things I Say To God