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.

Dispatch from the Diaspora

Credit to a Newsman: Letters After His Name

May 5, 2026 / 1 Comment

From a Derry girl, more or less. Once upon a time, before everything became urgent and push-notified and accompanied by a breaking-news chime, we waited. Not just for the news – but for someone we trusted to tell it to us. There was a posture to it. A kind of quiet ceremony. You sat up. You paid attention. And in…

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Dispatch from the Diaspora

What Counts and Who Does

May 1, 2026 / No Comments

Between Belonging and the Ballot Box In 2008, I volunteered at Obama Headquarters in Phoenix, spending a lot of time with a button maker and a headset that made me feel official. I had a big box of magic markers and made signs about hope and change. I called strangers in the evening to ask if they were registered to…

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Dispatch from the Diaspora, World Cup Football, Writers, Writing

𝗢𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗗𝗮𝘆 𝗶𝗻 𝗔𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗮 (𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗢𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗚𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝗧𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗕𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗸𝘀 𝗠𝘆 𝗛𝗲𝗮𝗿t 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝗜 𝗕𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗲𝘃𝗲 𝗔𝗻𝘆𝘄𝗮𝘆)

March 27, 2026 / No Comments

I don’t know when I fell in love with the idea of baseball. This is bothersome, because I like to know exactly when things begin so I can blame them properly later. What drew me to it? Maybe it was that unnaturally beautiful moment in “The Natural” when the beautiful Robert Redford sends the ball screaming into the stadium lights,…

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Dispatch from the Diaspora

mother’s day. as always.

March 15, 2026 / No Comments

Each day we move a little closer to the sidelines of their lives, which is where we belong, if we do our job right. Until the day comes when they have to find a florist fast at noon because they had totally forgotten it was anything more than the second Sunday in May. – Anna Quindlen Or the Fourth Sunday…

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