Yvonne Watterson Writing

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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, 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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Friendship, Ireland, Irish culture, Irish Diaspora, Language matters, Phoenix Art Museum, Shel Silverstein, Social Media, Twitter, Writing

looking after Ireland . . . madeleine albright & me

January 28, 2014 / 20 Comments

The Voice by Shel Silverstein There is a voice inside of you, That whispers all day long, “I feel that this is right for me, I know that this is wrong.” No teacher, preacher, parent, friend Or wise man can decide What’s right for you– just listen to The voice that speaks inside. I’m finding that with age, it is easier for…

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Antrim Guardian, Beautiful Girls, Breaking Bad, Dallas, Enough Said, Facebook, James Gandolfini, Memoir, Movies, Rich Man Poor Man, Soundtracks of our Lives, television, The Sopranos, Themes of Childhood, Twitter

from falconetti to gus fring & the distance in between . . .

September 28, 2013 / 10 Comments

The last time I was in the grip of a television series was in the 1970s and Abba’s Fernando was the most popular tune on my transistor radio. It was long before Netflix, box-sets of DVDs, iTunes, Amazon, and illegal downloads changed the way we watch TV. It was before Dallas and bookies taking bets on “Who shot JR?”; before “The Thorn…

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Awesome Women, Blogging, Bullying, Coming Home, Culture of breast cancer, Facebook, Feminism, Health, Health Activist Writer's Challenge 2013, Memoir, Movies, Poetry, Seamus Heaney, Social Media, Soundtracks of our Lives, Teaching, Toxic Workplaces, Twitter, Women in Politics, Workplace Bullying, Workplace Mobbing, Writing

Follow you. Follow me. Richie Havens R.I.P.

April 28, 2013 / 12 Comments

In the summer of 1968, a young Richie Havens told Rolling Stone magazine that the direction for his music was heaven. Until his death at 72 last week, Richie Havens embodied the notion of music as a transcendent medium for connection: Music is the major form of communication. It’s the commonest vibration, the people’s news broadcast … I think I’m ready…

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