Yvonne Watterson Writing
Yvonne Watterson Writing

considering the lilies & lessons from the field ©

More About Yvonne

More About Yvonne

More about Yvonne

Yvonne Watterson is a Northern Irish-born writer and educator, now based near Guadalajara, Mexico. Her career in public education spans 30 years, during which she led school reform initiatives featured in national outlets including The New York Times and Education Week. Her work as a high school principal in Arizona focused on equity, inclusion, and student advocacy, earning both local and national attention. Yvonne's writing life began in November 2011, after an invasive breast cancer diagnosis sent her searching for answers online. What began as survival grew into a practice of storytelling, with her work appearing beyond this blog in The Irish Times, Irish Central, Reading Ireland, and other outlets. Yvonne's essays and reflections explore themes ranging from The Troubles in Northern Ireland and the poetry of Seamus Heaney to personal experiences of illness, loss, and resilience after being widowed in 2013. She compiled and edited Documented Dreams, a bilingual collection of letters documenting her advocacy with young immigrant students, and she contributed to Bravados: An Anthology, featuring 21 personal narratives by expats living in the Lake Chapala region. Most recently, she collaborated with Stephen Travers on The Bass Player – Surviving the Miami Showband Massacre. Yvonne’s social justice advocacy has earned her numerous honors, including the City of Phoenix Martin Luther King “Living the Dream” Award and the YWCA Tribute to Women Social Justice Leader Award. She is also a musician, performing with her partner, Scott Henrich, in The Old Souls Band, a six-piece Americana ensemble based in Ajijic, Mexico and she plays violin in the Lake Chapala Community Orchestra. Her daughter, Sophie, also a writer, lives in Arizona. “If you have the words, there's always a chance that you'll find the way.” ― Seamus Heaney

About Yvonne

From there to here . . . Yvonne Watterson is a Northern Irish-born writer and educator, now based near Guadalajara, Mexico. Her career in public education spans nearly 30 years, during which she led school reform initiatives featured in national outlets including The New York Times and Education Week. Her work as a high school principal in Arizona focused on equity, inclusion, and student advocacy, earning both local and national attention. Her writing life began in 2011, after an invasive breast cancer diagnosis sent her searching for answers online. What began as survival grew into a practice of storytelling, with her work appearing in The Irish Times, Irish Central, Reading Ireland, and other outlets. Her essays and reflections explore themes ranging from The Troubles in Northern Ireland and the poetry of Seamus Heaney to personal experiences of illness, loss, and resilience after being widowed in 2013. She compiled and edited Documented Dreams, a bilingual collection of letters documenting her advocacy with young immigrant students, and she contributed to Bravados: An Anthology, featuring 21 personal narratives by expats living in the Lake Chapala region. Most recently, she collaborated with Stephen Travers on The Bass Player – Surviving the Miami Showband Massacre. Yvonne’s social justice advocacy has earned her numerous honors, including the City of Phoenix Martin Luther King “Living the Dream” Award and the YWCA Tribute to Women Social Justice Leader Award. She is also a musician, performing with her partner, Scott Henrich, in The Old Souls Band, an Americana ensemble based in Ajijic, Mexico and she plays violin in the Lake Chapala Community Orchestra. Her daughter, Sophie, is also a writer, living in Arizona.

  • American Dream,  Arizona,  Belfast,  Borders,  Bullying,  Gay Marriage,  Governor Jan Brewer,  Human Rights,  Immigration,  Marriage,  Politics,  Racial Profiing,  SB1062,  SB1070,  Soundtracks of our Lives,  The Troubles

    do the right thing this time, Governor Brewer.

    February 21, 2014 / 14 Comments

    A version of this article also appears at IrishCentral.com: Arizona Governor Could Show us That Lessons of History do not Apply to her Again.  The last time I hoped Arizona Governor Jan Brewer would do the right thing was in the summer of 2010. I was sitting in my Principal’s office, only half-enjoying a visit from a former student – each of us…

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    Editor
  • Being a Widow,  Facebook,  Friendship,  Loss,  Love,  Memoir,  Milestones,  Rites of passage,  Rituals,  Social Media,  Themes of childhood,  Valentines Day,  widowed

    for valentine’s day ~ ronald reagan’s love medicine

    February 14, 2014 / 12 Comments

    Many relationships in my life I conduct almost entirely by telephone, including those with the people dearest to me. With too much ocean or freeway stretching between our houses, it is easier to carry on conversations from the comfort of our own homes. Always, there is something to talk about even when there is nothing to talk about. Before Skype,…

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    Editor
  • Aging,  Being a Widow,  Being young,  Birthdays,  Death and dying,  Grieving,  Loss,  Marriage,  Memoir,  Milestones,  Mourning,  Poetry,  Rites of passage,  W.H. Auden,  Walt Whitman,  widowed

    no sense of direction . . .

    February 5, 2014 / 27 Comments

    One of the first gifts my husband ever gave me was a silver pocket compass. Having noted very early in our relationship my stellar capacity for getting lost – and notwithstanding the fact that I was then a novice driving on the American side of the road – my man intervened as he knew best. I hadn’t the heart to…

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    Editor
  • Awesome Women,  Breast Cancer Advocacy,  Breast Cancer Awareness,  Cancer Language,  Culture of breast cancer,  Diagnosis,  Early Detection,  Facebook,  Family,  Health,  Language of Cancer,  Mammograms,  Memoir,  Mother Daughter Relationship,  Pink Ribbon Culture,  Pink Ribbons,  Social Media,  Twitter,  Wilfred Owen,  World Cancer Day,  Writing

    world cancer day: a reprise

    February 4, 2014 / 19 Comments

    My breast cancer is not just about me as I discovered when my then fourteen year old daughter decided to break her silence about it. In her own way, on her Facebook wall, and on World Cancer Day 2012. Thus, on this day designated for speaking up and out, in 2014 focusing on Target 5 of the World Cancer Declaration which…

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