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.

  • Dispatch from the Diaspora

    How to Greet a New Year

    December 30, 2019 / No Comments

    Wherever you are, even if you’re feeling a bit lost, you are sure to  find yourself in the final essay from Local Wonders by Ted Kooser. It’s a lovely reflection on life and loss and on looking ahead –  where the world is waiting for us. Enjoy: Life is a long walk forward through the crowded cars of a passenger…

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  • Dispatch from the Diaspora

    How to Welcome a New Year

    December 31, 2018 / 1 Comment

    This is from Ted Kooser’s lovely book, Local Wonders.  Wherever you are in your life, you’ll find yourself in his reflection on life, the passing year, and how to greet the future: Life is a long walk forward through the crowded cars of a passenger train, the bright world racing past beyond the windows, people on either side of the…

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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

    Ready to Turn ~ Winter Solstice 2015

    December 22, 2015 / 1 Comment

    Again, the sun will pause for its moment of solstice before changing direction to move northward. From the Latin, solstitium, the apparent standing still of the sun, the Winter Solstice is a turning point, something I look forward to each year. At Newgrange, a neolithic burial tomb even older than Stonehenge, outside Dublin, Ireland, they hold a lottery to decide who…

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    Editor
  • Act Two,  After death of a spouse,  Aging,  Being a Widow,  Birthdays,  Dispatch from the Diaspora,  Father Daughter Relationships,  Fatherless daughters,  Fourth of July,  Loss,  Memoir,  Milestones,  Rites of passage,  Second Birthday Without Him,  Soundtracks of our Lives,  Ted Kooser

    Marking your Birthday – “Slow Learning but You Learn to Sway”

    September 21, 2015 / 13 Comments

    It is your birthday, and for the second time since we met, you are not with me on your day. How should we mark the occasion? Without any fuss, I can hear you say, and maybe you can hear me ignore you as I plan a fuss of some kind, the way I did for each of the 23 birthdays you celebrated with…

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