
Jannet Walsh is a fiscal year 2024 recipient of a Creative Individuals grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board. This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation by the Minnesota State Legislature; and by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

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.
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.

Jannet L. Walsh, a rural Minnesota-based photographer, writer and educator, first-time published author of a creative nonfiction quest narrative Higgledy-Piggledy Stones: Family Stories from Ireland and Minnesota about her Minnesota and Irish heritage. Publication 2023 by Shanti Arts Publishing.
Higgledy-Piggledy Stones: Family Stories from Ireland and Minnesota
Creative nonfiction quest narrative

“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
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Jannet Walsh’s photos and videos have been featured by CNN, CNN iReport, HLN, The New York Times Company and the California Academy of Sciences.
“As a little girl I heard about Ireland, especially from my late father Martin J. Walsh Jr., as he is the first known member of my family to visit Ireland, making his trip in 1953. I learned of the Great Famine, and that my family emigrated to North America, first to Canada and on to the United States, to survive. Like many immigrants, the stories and fine details are missing for many reasons, one being two centuries of forgetting in order to make new lives in the new world. This is where I wanted to play my part in telling our story.”
Jannet L. Walsh

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