Yvonne Watterson
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Yvonne Watterson

considering the lilies ©

More About Yvonne

More About Yvonne

More about Yvonne

Yvonne Watterson is a Northern Irish-born writer now living in Mexico. Her work has appeared in The Irish Times, Irish Central, Reading Ireland, and elsewhere. Yvonne's essays begin in all sorts of places - a song, a story, a ballpark, a polling place, a graveyard - but they return to the same complicated business of belonging to more than one place - what makes a place, a person, or a moment feel like home.

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. In 2025, 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.

  • 9.11.2013,  9/11,  Anything can Happen,  Belfast,  Billy Collins,  Blogging,  bombing,  British Army,  cancer,  Diary,  Dispatch from the Diaspora,  Healing Field Tempe,  Loss,  Memoir,  Memoir,  Northern Ireland,  Northern Ireland Culture,  Ordinary Things,  Peace,  Poetry,  Remembering September 11th,  Seamus Heaney,  September 11,  The Peace Process,  The Troubles,  The Troubles,  Themes of Childhood,  Writers

    Dear Igor . . . the last name on the list

    September 11, 2021 / No Comments

    Time after time, I have stood on the virtual doorsteps of people in the middle of lives parallel to my own,  beautifully blindsided by unexpected coincidences and exchanges of truths that may not otherwise have seen the light of day. In my virtual home, it is often easy to pull up a chair and trade ideas and opinions with people…

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    Editor
  • 9/11,  Anything can Happen,  Billy Collins,  Healing Field Tempe,  Memoir,  Remembering September 11th,  Seamus Heaney,  Terrorism,  Themes of childhood

    sharing the sky on september 11

    September 8, 2021 / No Comments

    What I remember about the morning of September 11 is how blue the sky was above the Twin Towers on my TV screen. And, I remember the feeling of revulsion so familiar to me from growing up in a tiny country where every day is an anniversary of some atrocity. Until that morning, I had taken for granted the sense…

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    Editor
  • 9/11,  Anything can Happen,  Billy Collins,  Healing Field Tempe,  Memoir,  Remembering September 11th,  Seamus Heaney,  Terrorism,  Themes of childhood

    naming names – 9.11

    September 10, 2018 / No Comments

    Flanked by row upon row of flagpoles set five feet apart, we can stretch out our arms to touch two lives at a time, lest we forget what happened on September 11, 2001. The 9.11 memorial in Tempe, Arizona, is heartbreakingly beautiful, each one of its 2,996 flags signifying a life taken on that horrific autumn morning.  We first visited the memorial in…

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    Editor
  • 9.11.2013,  9/11,  Anything can Happen,  Belfast,  Billy Collins,  Blogging,  bombing,  British Army,  cancer,  Diary,  Dispatch from the Diaspora,  Healing Field Tempe,  Loss,  Memoir,  Memoir,  Northern Ireland,  Northern Ireland Culture,  Ordinary Things,  Peace,  Poetry,  Remembering September 11th,  Seamus Heaney,  September 11,  The Peace Process,  The Troubles,  The Troubles,  Themes of Childhood,  Writers

    The Last Name on the List on the Eleventh of September

    September 10, 2018 / 2 Comments

    I have yet to be disappointed by what happens when my online world collides with its ‘real’ counterpart. Landing on the virtual doorsteps of people in the middle of lives parallel to my own, I have been beautifully blindsided by unexpected coincidences and exchanges of truths that may not otherwise have seen the light of day. In my virtual home, it…

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    Editor
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