I’m Josh Monken, children’s lit author, father, science communicator, and podcaster, joined by Brenna Jeanneret, children’s lit author, mother, avid climber and outdoorsperson, and podcaster!

This is the podcast You May Contribute a Verse, where we talk to kidlit creators, share their stories, and learn from their journey.

Today is about being weird together. It’s the first recorded conversation between Brenna and me as we get to know each other better and embark on this quest to do a cool lil podcast about picture books.

Every path trodden in this industry is different, and they all represent stories worth telling. Today’s with Brenna not only represents the traditional ‘How I Got My Agent’ story, which is unique and very-2021, but how we got to where we are now.

It’s a story of partnership, putting yourself out there, embracing the weird, and finding ways that work for you. Brenna’s journey has been super productive, not only landing her an agent in Dan Cramer (of Page Turner Lit), but becoming part of our budding Totally Funny Critique Group and eventually us combining our podcasting powers into one.

Each turn of the tale is about keeping eyes and ears open for opportunity, heart open to accept the uncertainty inherent in new paths, and… mouths open to podcast it out?

Find Brenna at her website.

Brenna is represented by Page Turner Literary Agency and Dan Cramer. Find more information about them - and Brenna's agency siblings - at the Page Turner site.