Editor – Page 123 – Yvonne Watterson Writing

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.

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The writer hails from County Antrim and has lived in the desert southwest of the United States for over 20 years. Her blog is her virtual home away from home.

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Day 15: she had a habit of writing

April 15, 2012 / 8 Comments

Writing is neither quick nor easy. Often, so elusive are the ideas and then the words to attach to them, that I may as well be divining for water. For the better part of today, I have been laboring on Day 15’s writing challenge. I just haven’t written anything. When an idea worth exploring comes my way, I hesitate to…

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Dispatch from the Diaspora

May you live in interesting times …

April 15, 2012 / 6 Comments

Another Boring Day in Paradise Years ago, I had one of those dreams we’ve all had, realistic and lucid. In it, I had misplaced an important book somewhere in an unfamiliar house. I awoke, a little frantic, not sure if I had only been dreaming, perturbed to have lost “The Big Book of Simple Pleasures,” half-wondering if, in reality, such…

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Day 13: taking stock of ten things I love

April 14, 2012 / 10 Comments

Day 13 of the Health Activist Writer’s Monthly Challenge, and an opportunity to write about the ten things I simply couldn’t live without. The things I have chosen may not be essential to my survival were I marooned on a desert island, but together these things are the very stuff of my life as I know it. Some are indeed…

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Belfast, Northern Ireland, Van Morrison

Day 11: “When the healing has begun”

April 12, 2012 / 6 Comments

For Day 11 of the WEGO Health Activist Writer’s Month Challenge I am imagining the perfect theme song for my blog. What song would I like to hear when I open my blog page every day? Given where I’m from and the fact that I spent most of my lunch money on albums, I think my theme song could only be something by…

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