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.

  • Awesome Women,  Birthdays,  Christine Ohlman - "The Deep End",  Concerts 2014,  Crescent Ballroom - Dr. Dog,  Great Concert Venues,  Joan Osborne,  John Prine,  Memoir,  MIM,  Red Rocks Amphitheater,  Rodney Crowell,  Ryan Adams and Jenny Lewis,  Steve Earle and Shawn Colvin,  Steve Winwood,  Stevie Wonder,  The Crescent Ballroom,  The Hold Steady,  The Rhythm Room,  The War on Drugs,  Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

    cutting my own groove in 2014

    December 29, 2014 / 16 Comments

    Life isn’t some vertical or horizontal line — you have your own interior world, and it’s not neat. ~ Patti Smith How do I begin to pack the stuff of the past twelve months in a box and tie it up with a big red bow? Just begin. Pluck out a memory and wrap it up. Move on to the next…

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    Editor
  • A Call,  Aging,  Being young,  Birthdays,  Castledawson,  Family,  Father Daughter Relationships,  Memoir,  Northern Ireland,  Rites of passage,  Seamus Heaney,  The Harvest Bow,  Themes of childhood

    happy birthday da

    October 13, 2014 / 12 Comments

    It is my father’s birthday today. Unimaginably, he is 76 years old, but like the rest of us, I’m sure there are times when he feels not one iota different from the handsome young man with a shock of black hair, smiling that smile at his beautiful girlfriend ~ I will send his birthday greetings via my mother’s Facebook page. He…

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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
  • Aging,  Arizona,  Birthdays,  Breast Cancer Awareness Month,  Death and dying,  Diagnosis,  Family,  Fireworks,  Irish culture,  Irish mammies,  John Hiatt,  Loss,  Love,  Memoir,  Memory,  Mother Daughter Relationship,  Muriel Rukeyser,  New Year,  Newgrange,  No Country for Old Men,  Northern Ireland Culture,  Ordinary Things,  saying goodbye,  Soundtracks of our Lives,  Starting over,  Ted Kooser,  Themes of Childhood,  Time

    my ‘slow turning’ ~ winter solstice 2013

    December 22, 2013 / 25 Comments

    It is a magic time, captured before clocks and calendars and compasses measured time and the distance between us, signifying the turn towards a new year. I’m not ready for it. I am not ready for days that stretch out even longer than each of the thirty-six that have passed since the day my husband died. Thirty-six. I cannot bring…

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