Your Invitation to Author Fair, May 9, 2026, Wadena City Library, Minnesota

Jannet L. Walsh , photo above — Author Jannet L. Walsh stands outside at the Dublin Airport, January 2, 2019, after spending several days in rural Killarney, County Kerry, Ireland searching for origins of her family in Ireland.

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Jannet L. Walsh
Thursday, April 30, 2026
Murdock, Minnesota

You are cordially invited to attend the Authors Fair, hosted by the Wadena City Library, Saturday, May 9, 2026, 10:30 am to 1:30 pm, 210 1st St SW, Wadena, Minnesota, 56482. The event is open to the public.

I’ll have copies of my book Higgledy-Piggledy Stones: Family Stories from Ireland and Minnesota on hand for sale, and will be happy to sign your copy! You can find out more details at my book page.

EVENT DETAILS
The Facebook page of the Wadena City Library indicates more than 14 Minnesota and area authors will be attending the Fishin’ For Books Author Fair. There’s a list of other authors attending, see Blue Cottage Facebook post, and follow their work also! Please see location and hours for Wadenda City Library branch website, with map posted below.

FOLLOW JANNET L. WALSH
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My BOOK

Higgledy-Piggledy Stones: Family Stories from Ireland and Minnesota
By Jannet L. Walsh

BOOK COVER

Jannet L. Walsh writes book on Minnesota and Irish Family History
Published by Shanti Arts

BOOK SUMMARY: This is a creative nonfiction quest narrative by Jannet L. Walsh of Murdock, Minnesota, about her Irish American heritage set in Minnesota and Ireland.  Walsh’s family was among the first in a series of Catholic colonies established in 1876 by Archbishop John Ireland in De Graff, Minnesota. Her ancestors were chosen to be part of the rural community in Swift County, dedicated as farmers, stewards of the soil and Christian faith.  Early settlers proved up their farmlands to become U.S. Citizens, renouncing ties to their old world in Ireland, Canada and other lands. Descendants of these setters continue to live and work in the rural farming community in Swift County.  What is presented here explores the author’s quest to understand her family as pioneers in Minnesota, as well as their places of origin mainly near Killarney town in County Kerry, Ireland. 

Jannet L. Walsh, author

REVIEWER’S COMMENTS

“Jannet Walsh’s Higgledy-Piggledy Stones knits continents and centuries together. From her home base in rural Minnesota, Walsh uses research to take readers from the Easter Rising of 1916 in Dublin, to an 1862 Civil War battle in Arkansas, to Bishop John Ireland’s nineteenth-century efforts to resettle Irish Catholics in North America—safe from persecution and famine. Full of wide and wheeling revelations, this memoir pins moments across decades, and sews personal genealogy to world history. Punctuated with original poems, archival letters, and official documents, this engaging narrative is also a treatise on the value of remembering, recovering, and preserving. Walsh finds the extraordinary hiding in plain sight, affirming that history lives beside us in our own homes.”
—James Cihlar, author of The Shadowgraph

“Jannet Walsh grasps each new life situation with pluck and adventure. This time, Walsh tracks down her family’s Irish roots by traveling to the native land. In her ventures and exploits she obtains valuable information from pub locals as well as clergy, historians, librarians, hotel clerks, and a welcoming family. In her ‘you are there’ memoir, readers travel with Walsh as she remembers and lives out family loyalties—while leaving no (blarney) stone unturned.”
—Cheryl Alberts Irwin, retired journalist, writer, and editor

“Like her great-grandmother’s handwritten cookbook, stowed away safely in the kitchen of a century-old family house on the edge of the world, Jannet Walsh has stewarded her family’s stories across two continents and a hundred years. Though the particulars of the story of the Brennans, Foleys, and Walshes are specific to the Irish-American experience in rural Minnesota, the sweeping, entertaining, and touching way Walsh tells it points the way for any reader to consider how they engage with the legacy of one’s family.”
—Andy Sturdevant, author of Closing Time: Saloons, Taverns, Dives, and Watering Holes of the Twin Cities

“The remarkable journey of one Irish Catholic family from poverty, hunger and religious discrimination to well-respected, God-fearing citizens and toilers of the soil in a new land and community. The research is remarkable, and the stories of the journey, both in the United States and in Ireland, come vividly to life through extraordinary writing and historical and cultural understanding. A must read for all amateur genealogists and for all present-day descendants of the great people who left the Emerald Isle.”
—Rev. Gary E. Mills, Th. D., director, Swift County Historical Society, Benson, Minnesota

“Jannet Walsh’s Higgledy-Piggledy Stones: Family Stories from Ireland and Minnesota is a journey told with poetry, grace, and love of her ancestors. It pays both homage to her family and the ancient places from whence we inherit our strength, faith, and spiritual ties with the Earth. Walsh follows in the footsteps of her family’s origins, investigating their travels from Ireland, to Canada, to America, where she retraces with acute perspective, their enduring courage and strength, creating a timeless mythology not only of her descendants but of humanity. From the obscure ancient Butter Roads of Ireland, to Holy wells, and fairy myths left from centuries of connecting to the land and nature, Walsh lets her passionate research guide her. We journey with her through the unmarked country side where glacial formed mountains, sacred places, and Irish folklore bridge her past with her present Minnesota origins. Higgledy-Piggledy Stones is an ethereal tour through time and a delight.” —Tracy Ross, poet and writer

Searching for Irish and Canadian Ancestors?
I have a handout from a recent talk to help you explore your own Irish and Canadian roots, or click to download PDF.

Current Writing Project – Wolfe Island, Ontario Canada
Please see details about my current writing project searching for family roots on Wolfe Island, Ontario, Canada. Read more about my current Nonfiction writing project – Irish Diaspora Family Stories from Minnesota and Canada, see project page.

Regards,

Jannet L. Walsh
Written at home, Murdock, Minnesota

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Jannet L. Walsh is a recipient of a Southwest Minnesota Arts Council Artist Growth Grant, 2024-2026. This activity is funded, in part, by a grant from the Southwest Minnesota Arts Council through an appropriation from the Minnesota State Legislature with money from the State’s general fund.

Please follow updates at my website, JannetWalsh.com.

Copyright © 2026. Jannet L. Walsh. All Rights Reserved.

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*Jannet L. Walsh of Murdock, Minnesota is a photographer, writer, and educator. She is the author of a creative nonfiction quest narrative “Higgledy-Piggledy Stones: Family Stories from Ireland and Minnesota,” 2023 by Shanti Arts Publishing. Walsh is recipient of a Southwest Minnesota Arts Council Growth Grant funded by the McKnight Foundation, 2022-2024, and Southwest Minnesota Arts Council, 2024-2026. She is also recipient of a 2024 Minnesota State Arts Board Creative Individuals Grant, funding from National Endowment for the Arts. You can follow Walsh on Facebook and Twitter, and on her other social media channels, with the hashtag #IrishFamilyHistoryDetective.