For College of Arts & Letters junior Libby Garnett, creative writing has been a center of discipline and a devotion for most of her life.
“I have always written stories and poetry and songs since I was very little,” she said. “When I was eight years old, I was writing murder mysteries. I kind of never stopped writing.”
By age 14, she started writing a four-line poem every day, which has grown into a daily practice of writing a poem or song.
Garnett was drawn to the four-week intensive Creative Writing Summer Program at Notre Dame Kylemore — led by English associate professor Dionne Bremyer and world-renowned Irish playwright Marina Carr — primarily because she wanted to expand her creative writing practice in a way that differed from the critical thesis she is pursuing for her English degree.
Alongside her interest in creative writing, she developed a “spiritual” and “life-saving” practice of songwriting which has grown over time at Notre Dame: she has self-released, self-produced, and self-promoted her original music, spanning four albums: icarus heart (2020), love letters: a day in the life of an american teenager (2021), real life (2022), slow songs for you (2022), and ten types of love (2023). For Garnett, adding production after mainly writing songs on guitar “changed the way I looked at music because suddenly this thing that was deeply personal and spiritual, definitely spiritual, became a product, that fits into public consumption. I can sleep at night, saying I wrote it all down and put it all out,” she said.
In March 2025, the Notre Dame Student Union Board brought artist Del Water Gap to Stepan Center in South Bend, and Garnett was selected to open the performance — an incredibly moving experience for her, both as a fan of the artist and as an emerging musician herself.
Naturally, music was an integral part of her interest in exploring Galway during her week at the University of Galway. While seeking out the wealth of live music the city had to offer, Garnett sang the Irish folk song “Wild Mountain Thyme” with a street performer in Galway named Brendan.
After Galway, the program moved to Notre Dame Kylemore for the remaining three weeks, allowing for a variety of cultural and artistic experiences — from the Diamond Hill Music Festival in Letterfrack, the Galway International Arts Festival, and hiking on Omey Island, the Aran Islands, the Burren, and more. In the “Notre Dame family” spirit, Garnett noted that sharing activities and hikes with professor Bremyer’s family created a sense of being “taken care of,” which added a meaningful layer of care to her experience as a student in the program.
The academic programming for the Creative Writing Program consisted of one class, which spanned lectures and workshops on alternating days, led by both Bremyer and Carr. The coursework was punctuated by readings, time for workshopping drafts with ND MFA students, and a series of in-person guest lectures by writers and book editors currently practicing in Ireland: Molly Hennigan, Declan Toohey, Karl Geary, Bebe Ashley, and Eimear Ryan. Assignments ranged in form and length, from flash fiction to monologues.
Before attending this program, Garnett had taken fiction classes, but she experienced a new sense of self as a limitless creator.
“Making up characters and making up people, it was very God-like,” she said. “I had never written something not based on real life, and that kind of power was so exciting.”
In lectures, she was particularly moved by playwright Marina Carr’s philosophical framing of the writing process.
“She understood writing as inherently an encounter with your existence,” Garnett said. “You have to know what you believe about the world before you can start writing, so you have clarity.”
During the program, Garnett wrote primarily about Ireland and the strangers she met on its streets, whom she explored more deeply in her short stories and poetry. The vivid green of the Connemara mountains left a lasting impression on her — standing before them, she had the feeling, “it’s all yours.”
One of the most memorable parts of the experience for Garnett was the final showcase, where fellow students presented pieces they had developed during the program. She shared a ghazal (an Arabic verse form involving meditative repetition), a short story, and an original song she had written during the program, with instrumental contributions from other students.
Early in the program, she had jokingly told her peers, “By the end, I’m gonna have a band.” By the finale, that prediction had been realized.
The program was more than an academic and cultural experience for Garnett — it was trajectory-changing.
“My brain chemistry was altered as a writer. I went on a family vacation and had to sit in a coffee shop and write for hours,” she said.
Once firmly set on the path to law school, she now finds herself applying to MFA programs in Ireland, a shift that even she didn’t expect.
“I don’t have a choice,” she said, describing the pull she feels towards pursuing a creative future.
In Connemara, she discovered a magic like no other, one that has inspired generations of artists before her, and one she now feels compelled to follow.
Originally published by at kylemore.nd.edu on September 24, 2025.
