Brennan Kenneth Brown
Independent author and web developer that’s passionate about making a better, more-human Internet for everyone.
Making a dent in the universe.
About Me
I’m a Queer Red River Métis writer, and JAMstack developer who works within the hybrid of technology, creativity, and community.
I love writing and I love coding.
Hi there! I’m Brennan Kenneth Brown (my friends call me Kenny). I write daily and build in the open:
- +500,000 words across +280 posts, with 2,000 avg. words per post on brennan.day since January 2025
- 1,400+ hours logged coding since 2017 via WakaTime. Markdown, HTML, JavaScript, CSS, and Python
- Open-Source Contributor: Created 30+ free Jekyll/Eleventy/Hugo themes and tools used by developers worldwide
- Founder of Berry House: Building a more human-centric web through JAMstack development and compelling storytelling
- Published Author: Nine independent books of poetry and essays exploring identity, love, faith, and the human experience
- Indigenous & Queer Voice: Committed to empowering marginalized communities and centering stories that matter
- English Honours Graduate: Mount Royal University, 3.8 GPA, founder of Write Club creative writing community
My sites are fast and framework-light. Eleventy, Hugo, and Jekyll for generation. Nunjucks and Go templates for layouts. Markdown and YAML for content. Vanilla CSS with no heavy frameworks. We can make the Internet simple and human.
Work With Berry House
Your go-to collective for human-centric web development and compelling digital writing.
Berry House is a social enterprise reclaiming the internet from algorithm-driven homogeneity. We offer professional JAMstack web development and writing services while championing digital autonomy, creativity, and a more meaningful web.
What We Offer
- JAMstack Web Development: Modern, performant, secure websites built with Hugo, Eleventy, and other static site generators
- Writing Services: Copywriting, technical writing, content strategy, and storytelling workshops
- Dual Mission: Professional services for businesses at market rates, plus accessible pay-what-you-can support for non-profits and marginalized communities
Why Choose Berry House?
We believe the web should be human-first, not algorithm-first. Whether you’re a corporate client seeking cutting-edge JAMstack solutions or a non-profit needing to tell your story, Berry House brings technical excellence and authentic storytelling together.
Looking to work together? Berry House is your best option for professional collaboration. Contact us to discuss your project.
Skills
The tools, languages, and platforms I use to build, write, and self-host on the independent web.
IndieWeb & Decentralized Web
Databases
Styling & Frontend Tools
Languages & Core Technologies
Development Environment
Research & Academia
Help Keep My FOSS Work Free & Accessible
If you’ve benefited from my open-source themes, tools, or writing, consider supporting my work.
I’ve been creating free and open-source software (FOSS) for years—Jekyll themes, Eleventy starters, web development tools, and extensive documentation—all available at no cost. Your support helps me dedicate more time to building accessible tools, writing educational content, and contributing to the IndieWeb and JAMstack communities.
The Toonie Club
One simple tier, full access for everyone: $2 CAD per month (or pay whatever you want). No expensive gated content or confusing tiers—just simple, sustainable support.
- Ko-fi: Join the Toonie Club or leave a one-time tip (recommended)
- GitHub Sponsors: Support my open-source development directly on GitHub
- Patreon: Toonie Club membership support on a monthly basis
Every contribution, no matter how small, makes a meaningful difference and helps me continue making the web a more creative, accessible, and human-centric space.
Want to learn more? Check out all the ways to support, including non-monetary options.
My Books
Poetry, essays, and chapbooks exploring Indigenous identity, queerness, love, and the human experience.
Writing Portfolio
I write in a wide variety of genres and topics. From lyric essays and cultural criticism to practical IndieWeb tutorials for developers, each piece reflects my dedication to meaningful storytelling and helping others.
Find My Writing Across the Web
- Medium Blog: Long-form essays on productivity, tech, and self-development
- brennan.day: My independent IndieWeb publication, built with 11ty.
- Poetry on Tumblr: Free-verse, experimental and creative writing
Creative writing
Lyric essays and cultural criticism. Full archive at brennan.day/archive.
WEBMASTER@ a manifesto
I'm reclaiming the title of "webmaster" as the multidisciplinary creator who designs, develops, …
GRAIN ELEVATOR COUNTRY
A fifteen-hour road trip across Saskatchewan with my brother, watching the prairie unfold through …
That's Home. That's us.
We have the first human photograph of Earth from space in 54 years, and I can't help but meditate on …
Our Skies Contain Sprites and Elves
Yes, really. Exploring the magical world of transient luminous events in the upper atmosphere: …
THE CLOWN BURNOUT
Clown white doesn't come off in one pass. A personal story about how I can never take myself …
Writers Who Wrote The Most in History
I've been writing publicly every day for seven months, and I wanted to know what that looked like …
Technical writing
Tutorials and IndieWeb write-ups for developers who want to build their own independent sites.
Why Make Your Website Accessible?
Web accessibility isn't compliance theatre or checking off a list. It's about designing for …
Oldnets and Altnets: Gemini and Gopher
Reacting to the Omarchy and DigitalOcean news, I set out a curated low-spec, text-first alternative …
Becoming a Rogue Scholar
I've been weighing grad school against continuing my own open-access publication, so I wrote a guide …
How Webmentions Work on brennan.day
A tutorial and walkthrough of how I implemented webmentions on my site, from setup to display, …
Homelabbing For Beginners
A beginner-friendly guide to building your own homelab on inexpensive hardware. Covers finding old …
Making a Digital Garden in 11ty
I decided to build brennan.click, a wiki-linked digital commonplace book in Eleventy, with …
By the Numbers
Front-page Hacker News features, the most-upvoted post in Lobste.rs history, and readers in 184 countries across six continents.
Front page of Hacker News
The End of Eleventy (229 pts) and Gemini, Gophers, and Fingers (147 pts)
Most upvoted post ever on Lobste.rs
Normalized Fascism in Open Source: $12 Million Given to DHH — 495 points, 475 comments
Total views across Medium & brennan.day
80.7K on Medium (Dec 2025–Aug 2026) + 198,242 on brennan.day (since Feb 2026)
Countries & territories reached
Readers across all six inhabited continents
Words published on brennan.day
+280 posts averaging 2,000 words each, since January 2025
Jekyll, Hugo, & 11ty Themes
Free, open-source themes for modern blogging and digital gardens.
Apps, Tools & Websites
Full-stack applications, developer tools, and community websites.
Bearminder: Bear → Beeminder Menubar
Swift, macOS AppKit, Beeminder API, Bear App API, Keychain, XcodeGen
A macOS menubar application that tracks daily word counts from the Bear app and posts them to Beeminder goals. It runs on-demand or hourly, securely stores tokens in Keychain, and focuses on privacy.
My Resume
Take a look at my unique work history and education that lead me to where I am today. I take pride in being an autodidact, lifelong-learner and always approach materials with a beginner’s mindset.
Bachelor of Arts, English Honours
Mount Royal University
Final GPA: 3.8 • Graduated April 2025
- Member of the Golden Key Honour Society
- Founder of the Creative Writing Club (https://writeclub.ca)
- President from September 2022 — June 2025
- Contributor to The Reflector Newspaper
Fullstack Web Development Program
InceptionU / EvolveU
- Vanilla JavaScript, React.js, Node.js, Python, Flask, PostgreSQL, NoSQL, C#.
- Test Driven Development, Pair Programming, Debugging, Wire-framing.
- Agile Management, Design Thinking, Project Management.
Various Courses, Software Development
Southern Alberta Institute of Technology
- Hardware, Operating System, Networking, and Programming Essentials
- Business Dynamic, Communications and Presentation Skills
- User-Interface and MySQL Database Design
- Object Oriented Programming, Website Development Fundamentals
Founder and Lead Developer
Berry House
- Dual-mission model: corporate rates fund pro-bono web development for nonprofits and marginalized communities, across the Jekyll, Eleventy, and Hugo ecosystems.
- Deliver 95+ Google Lighthouse scores (performance, accessibility, SEO, best practices), with 60–80% load time reductions for WordPress → JAMstack migrations.
- Build and maintain IndieWeb-compliant open-source starters and tools (jekyll-audit CLI, Markdown-to-DOCX, Meddler) with Webmentions, Microformats, and RSS support.
- Deployed fanfiction.lol, an independent fanfiction archive forked from the AO3 (OTW-Archive) codebase, on a Ruby on Rails 8 stack with MariaDB, Elasticsearch, Redis, and Docker Compose.
Full-stack Web Developer
folk.zone
- Sole operator of an IndieWeb commons: 15+ free, open-source federated services self-hosted on consumer hardware, including Mastodon, Forgejo, Lemmy, FreshRSS, WriteFreely, and BookWyrm.
- Architected a single Docker Compose stack with Caddy reverse proxy, automatic Let’s Encrypt TLS, and Authentik SSO across all services.
- Replaced Cloudflare with Caddy + Porkbun DNS to align infrastructure with IndieWeb data-sovereignty values.
- Built and deployed an Eleventy (11ty) static homepage with a full custom brand system, style guide, and technical deployment documentation.
Independent Journalist & Publisher
Medium / brennan.day
- Authored 300+ longform articles spanning literary criticism, Indigenous studies, disability representation, creative writing craft, digital minimalism, web development, and personal essays.
- Featured on the front page of Hacker News twice: “The End of Eleventy” and “Gemini, Gophers, and Fingers”.
- Built and maintain brennan.day, a production IndieWeb publication built from scratch with Eleventy, Nunjucks, and vanilla CSS, scoring 9/9 on the IndieWeb protocol checker (Webmentions, Micropub, IndieAuth, WebSub, Microformats2, RSS/JSON feeds).
- Improved Lighthouse mobile score from 65 to 95 through critical CSS inlining, DOM batching, image optimization, and migration to inline SVG sprites.
Lead Instructor
Fireweed Writing School
- Anti-racist, student-centered online writing school focused on craft, discipline, and community-based learning.
- Designed bi-weekly workshop curriculum covering imagist techniques, revision processes, and publication pathways.
- Facilitate live 2-hour workshops with small cohorts using Critical Response Process peer critique methodology.
Technical Writer & Productivity Analyst
Journal.kim / JournalBar
- Published 70 consecutive weekly blog posts documenting comprehensive self-improvement experiment, achieving 100% consistency over 24-month period with 160,000+ words of technical documentation.
- Maintained 26 simultaneous behavioral tracking systems using Beeminder platform, demonstrating advanced project management and data analysis capabilities.
- Built and maintained Jekyll-based static site with custom CSS, JavaScript, and responsive design; managed 700+ GitHub commits for site infrastructure and open-source contributions.
- Integrated multiple tracking APIs and automation tools (RescueTime, IFTTT, GitHub API, Fitbit) to create comprehensive data pipeline for self-quantification.
Book Author
Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing
- Published 9 independent books (poetry chapbooks, essay collections, memoir) totaling 1,500+ pages.
- Works span confessional poetry, Indigenous identity, literary criticism, and experimental writing, sustaining 4.8–5.0 star ratings across all titles.
- Editor and foreword contributor for the On the Fringe anthologies, featuring 20+ emerging writers.
Founder and President
Write Club
- Founded and facilitated weekly meetings fostering a vibrant learning community of over 100 members, focusing on improving creative writing skills and promoting intellectual diversity.
- Served as President, leading fundraising events for the Canadian Children’s Literacy Foundation and organizing author readings, poetry slams, bookstore collaborations, and indie anthology publishing.
- Built writeclub.ca on Jekyll with a focus on accessibility, complete visual identity, and community engagement.
Crisis Support Listener
7 Cups
- Provided active listening and emotional support to individuals in distress on a global mental health platform, cultivating a safe and validating environment for members to share their experiences.
- Engaged in 790+ support chats, directly assisting 249+ individuals with their emotional well-being, sustaining a 5-star rating backed by 84 individual ratings and 19 detailed written reviews.
- Attained “Advanced Listener Level 5” certification by progressing through 105 specialized training steps.
Marketing Intern
OnRamp Fellowship
- Completed intensive 12-week marketing fellowship focused on digital marketing strategies and campaign development.
- Developed comprehensive marketing plans for local businesses and nonprofit organizations.
- Created content calendars, social media strategies, and email marketing campaigns.
Full Stack Developer
InceptionU Fellowship
- Experimental program focused on full-stack development in a collaborative learning environment.
- Studied Vanilla JavaScript, React.js, Node.js, Python, Flask, PostgreSQL, and C#.
- Practiced Test Driven Development, pair programming, debugging, and wireframing within agile methods.
Sous Chef
Rotary Flames House
- Managed morning rush serving numerous families daily with efficient, levelheaded customer service in a hospice care environment.
- Updated menu with daily offerings and specials, using personalized artistic touches to create a comforting atmosphere for families in difficult circumstances.
- Correctly followed all health, safety and sanitation guidelines; managed inventory by establishing and adjusting ordering parameters, forecasting usage and controlling waste.
Housekeeper
ServiceMaster Clean
- Experience cleaning within hospitals, businesses and educational settings with training in specifications of intensive-care and emergency protocols.
- Demonstrated diverse knowledge of particular sanitation techniques and heavy-lifting capabilities up to 30kg in laborious work environments.
- Maintained high standards of cleanliness and safety across multiple facility types.
Testimonials
Why hire me for your next project?
With a diverse skill set and a passion for continuous learning, I am dedicated to helping freelancers and startups achieve their goals. My extensive experience in web development, community building, content creation, and project management enables me to deliver high-quality results across various domains. Here’s a closer look at the skills I bring to the table:
My Services
Enjoy team diversity and increase their networks among others people in various fields by provided.