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The International Society For Bipolar Disorder (ISBD) has awarded Emily the 2019 Mogens Schou Award For Public Service and Advocacy for her work in mental health.  Since publishing her autobiographical book ‘Start Over Again’ back in 2010, Emily has done many gigs for mental health hospitals and groups across the UK and been interviewed many times on BBC Radio talking about her own lived experience in the hope of combating the stigma of mental illness.

The ISBD says, “The ISBD Awards committee seeks to identify candidates for the Mogens Schou Award whose contributions, commitment and passion honor the legacy of Prof. Schou. We first became aware of your music and background through Ms. Marylou Selo, a past recipient of this Award, and after visiting your website, learning more about how your lived experience of bipolar disorder informs your art, and how you have made a point to leverage that to provide hope for those living with mental illness, it is clear that you embody the spirit of the Mogens Schou Award for Public Service and Advocacy.”

Emily will travel to the ISBD annual conference in Sydney, Australia in March to collect her award.  For more information about Emily’s work in mental health and her campaign to promote music for mental health, please visit www.musicformentalhealth.net.

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One week to go until the start of Emily’s book tour to promote her new book of Buddhist poetry ‘Meditation Mind’.  These very intimate gigs in bookshops and Buddhist centres will be a mix of poetry readings and acoustic songs with Emily on guitar and her husband Christian Dunham on double-bass.  The hour-long set will include songs from Emily’s old albums that have rarely been performed plus a brand new song.  Emily will hold a short Q&A at the end of each performance.  She is touring Taunton, Oxford, Bridport, Cardiff, Manchester, Haslemere, Coventry, Frome, Bath, London and Bristol.  Book tickets

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You can now watch videos of me reading from my new book ‘Meditation Mind’ at https://emilymaguire.com/videos/.  I’ll post more videos of poetry readings on social media (Facebook, Twitter and Instagram) over the coming weeks.  All these poems were stream-of-consciousness compositions written after meditating, and completely unedited.  I have no memory of writing any of them.  ‘Meditation Mind’ is available to order from my website or from Amazon (or you can order it in all good UK bookshops).

I’m really looking forward to my ‘Meditation Mind’ book tour starting next month.  I’ll be performing a special set of acoustic songs and poetry readings in Taunton (8 Nov), Oxford (10 Nov), Bridport (12 Nov), Cardiff (16 Nov), Manchester (17 Nov), Haslemere (22 Nov), Coventry (24 Nov), Frome (29 Nov), Bath (30 Nov), London (6 Dec) and Bristol (8 Dec). Click here for details and tickets.

Hope all’s well in your world.

xx

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We’ve just posted some videos of Emily reading poems from her new book ‘Meditation Mind’.  Emily will be touring the UK in November and December playing very intimate gigs in bookshops and Buddhist centres, reading poems and singing acoustic songs with a short Q&A at the end.  Dates and details of these gigs are here.  Places are limited so please book early and please spread the word if you have friends or family in any of these places you think might like to come.  More videos will be posted on Emily’s social media over the coming weeks – you can follow her on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.

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Emily and Christian performed to a packed crowd at The Slaughtered Lamb in London on Saturday for the last night of her 2018 UK tour.  You can see photos of the gig on Emily’s Facebook page.

Emily is doing a special one-off gig on Saturday 27 October at Gaunts House in Wimborne before starting her book tour in November.  Dates and ticket links for all these gigs can be found here.

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I am delighted to announce the publication of my third book ‘Meditation Mind’, a book of poetry inspired by my Buddhist practice.

‘Meditation Mind’ is a collection of short, stream-of-consciousness poems all written in 2015 while I was unable to play my musical instruments due to chronic tennis elbow. Struggling with depression, I was desperate to do something creative to distract my mind and so I started writing a poem each morning after meditating.

I’ve practised Tibetan Buddhism since 1999 and my morning practice is Sarasvati (who features on the cover of the book). I would finish my meditation, make a coffee and sit down to write a poem. All the poems in the book took less than a minute to write. They are unedited, exactly as they fell out of my head onto the page of my journal.  I have no memory of writing any of them.

To celebrate the launch of ‘Meditation Mind’, I am doing a series of very intimate gigs in bookshops and Buddhist centres across the country. These events will be a mix of poetry readings from the book and acoustic songs with me on guitar and my husband Christian Dunham on double-bass. It would be lovely to see you if you can make any of the dates.

Thur 8 Nov    Taunton – Brendon Books  book tickets
Sat 10 Nov     Oxford – Restore charity  book tickets
Mon 12 Nov   Bridport – The Book Shop  book tickets
Fri 16 Nov      Cardiff – Octavo’s Book Cafe & Wine Bar  book tickets
Sat 17 Nov     Manchester – Chapter One Books  register
Thur 22 Nov  Surrey – The Haslemere Bookshop  book tickets
Sat 24 Nov     Coventry – The Big Comfy Bookshop  book tickets
Thur 29 Nov  Frome – Hunting Raven Books  book tickets
Fri 30 Nov      Bath – St James Wine Vaults  book tickets
Thur 6 Dec     London – Sakya Buddhist Centre  book tickets
Sat 8 Dec        Bristol – Sakya Buddhist Centre  book tickets

‘Meditation Mind’ is available to order in all good bookshops, from Amazon and through my website.