• So what am I going to do for 2006? I aim to finish 3 books - 'Am I Still Laughing?' ; 'Madly' and 'How to be Mad?'. I am going to find a publisher for my recently completed book of poems 'Eccentric Fish'. I am going to record one album of music and develop some theatre projects I have in mind. I will also be developing my feature film script and scouting for locations for it. Filmwise, that's what I will be doing and in that vein, I will be looking for a producer that will get the project off the ground. And of course I will be making short films and performing and painting.

  I am making my first 16mm film: at South Thames College, along with other film students, we are filming a script I wrote called 'Milk'. It is a dreamlike piece where balloons are common currency and hostages are stuck inside cows. Makes perfect sense to me really!

   

• Another great review of my work: From the Survivors Poetry Website: The Maenad Angel Poetics
  By Dolly Sen - Reviewed by Carolyn O’Connell.
  First published in Poetry Express 21.

  Reading The Maenad Angel Poetics after Some Moments of Love was a totally different experience. Dolly Sen has produced in this book a long totally modern poem. Though on first glance it appears possibly a performance piece, on closer inspection it is incredibly complex and well worth the effort taken to understand it. Think of Eliot combined with the underside of city life, add a touch of madness coupled with cynicism and the key to this poem is found.

  It is a well-crafted, didactic, satirical paean of epic proportions. It rails against the 9-5, telly addicted, larger drinking, high mortgaged, credit crazy life. The maenad comes from the Greek and refers to the bacchanal; therefore the maenad angel is the angel of the rave - and does she rave. Using this angel metaphor, haiku, tanka and nagatu-uta this poem winds its way through city and relationship observing, being, both prostitute or bag lady with the harsh intensity of the outsider. It pulls no punches either in pace or language. No stone is left unturned or expletive barred as the angel raves against life and mortality. The only relief occurs on page 23 where two sets of dotted lines are used to mark a change of pace, a period of introspection before a period of balanced free verse precedes the final denouement.

• I have finished my second memoir - 'Am I still laughing?' It is being proofread at the moment and the cover design is going to be done by Melanie Clifford, an amazing and wonderful artist. Her website is at: http://www.corrugated.demon.co.uk/
• BONKERSFEST: I am one of the organisers of BONKERSFEST, a one day festival in June. Check out the website http://www.bonkersfest.com

 



• I talked at this year's Disability Capital Conference on the subject of how to move the disability movement forward.



• I have a myspace site as well! http://www.myspace.com/dozzyangel

• Mad Pride legend Rob Dellar wrote about the distinct and cheeky way I campaign for better mental health and against discrimination in his article in Southwark Mind

• Getting into watercolours: I love painting and am experimenting with watercolours. Here a piece called sleep.

• 10th May - I went into the studio to record a program with radio four, talking about schizophrenia. 'Between Ourselves' will be aired late summer/early autumn. I talked with a fellow survivor Janey Antoniou who is battling cancer at the moment. I wish her a speedy recovery.

• AM working on Creative Routes website with my brother, we are playing about with the flash movie as intro.

• Launch of Cd with me on it: Creative Routes first cd 'Statute of Liberty' is launched June 3rd. Great music, and me as Dozzy Angel doing some spoken word and comedy.

• BONKERSFEST WAS GREAT BUT SOMEONE STOLE OUR SHEEP! It will cost us, not rich people, £500 to replace. You frigging sheep-shagger I hope your googies turn septic. If anyone spots it in SE London, can they please email me. Below is what the sheep looks like!

Appearance on 2 Radio shows: On 14th June, I hosted a show called 'Creative Routes Radio' on Resonance Radio 104.4fm or http://www.resonancefm.com to launch CR Records'd first CD' Statute of Liberty'. And on the 19th I was interviewed by Sabrina George for her wonderful website http://newcomedyradio.com/ about my comedy. When the interview is uploaded, I will put the link on this page.

2nd Memoir now out in Ebook: The followup to the acclaimed 'The World is Full of Laughter' is now out on the Chipmunkapublishing website. To read more about it and to buy a copy, click here

HOW TO BE MAD BOOK: I have also just finished editing the anthology 'How to be Mad' and we are aiming for an October book launch. Here is sneak preview of the cover, which I have designed.

• My poetry in an anthology: one of my poems is in a new anthology called 'The Real Survivors Anthology' published by Sixties Press http://www.sixtiespress.co.uk It also features poetry from Stevie Smith & John Horder.

• I will be reading from my books at the Kissit! Event on the 10th August at the ex-site of Bedlam: The Imperial War Museum at 3pm. The Kissit XX campaign fights against psychiatric abuses. Their website is: http://www.kissit.org

• MAD BOOK FAIR: Thanks to a grant from SLAM Charitable Trusts and a genius idea from my partner Sarah Tonin, I am going to set up a Mad Book Fair in October. Go to http://wwwdollysen/madbookfair.htm for further details.

• This website won an award earlier this year: The New Plays website awarded this site the STAR SITE in March. See http://www.newplays.org.uk/starsite/2006.htm for more details.

• COME TO MY BOOK LAUNCH ON OCT 10th. I promise you will not go a launch quite like it. Here is the press release:

Award winning author
Dolly Sen
launches her new book
Am I Still Laughing?
at the first annual Mad Book Fair
Tuesday 10 October 2006
South London Gallery, 65 Peckham Road, London SE5
6.30pm to 9pm
FREE

Am I Still Laughing? is an epistle to equality, tolerance and the true beauty of madness. Dolly Sen's powerful personal pilgrimage to love, life and humanity again is a very intimate tale about the power of dreaming, taking control and fighting for the right to be oneself and to be equal and to be accepted
David Morris, Senior Policy Adviser to the Mayor (Disability) Greater London Authority

Dolly Sen is a writer, director, artist, filmmaker, poet, performer, raconteur, playwright, mental health consultant, music-maker and public speaker. She was born in 1970 in London, and had her first psychotic experience aged 14. She dropped out of school, and has had to share her life with severe mental health problems ever since. Despite being told she’d never amount to anything - that she’d probably end up in Broadmoor - she has achieved astounding success, proving, as Dolly says: ‘that the mind is an amazing thing; it can drive you mad and inspire you in the same breath... You can do anything if you believe you can’.

Dolly Sen’s new book, Am I Still Laughing?, is the follow up to her acclaimed memoir, The World is Full of Laughter. Her first book started out as a possible suicide note and ended up as a celebration of life. The brutally honest account of living with madness has been an inspiration to readers around the world, and has positively changed many peoples’ lives. Dolly’s father was a small-time singer and actor, and through him she worked as an extra on various films including the Star Wars epic, The Empire Strikes Back, until Steven Spielberg sacked her because he thought her child-breasts were too big for the part of an underfed child slave. Confused by sci-fi reality and day-to-day fiction Dolly traces her madness ‘all the way back to when I worked on The Empire Strikes Back. It wasn't a film, it was reality, and it was up to me to maintain the good and evil in the universe'.

Since the publication of The World is Full of Laughter by Chipmunka in 2002, Dolly has published a further three books; taken on performance roles at The Young Vic, the Royal Festival Hall, and around Europe; undertaken a poetry tour; won a poetry award from Poet Laureate Andrew Motion; directed two plays and several TV films; and performed spoken word at City Hall and Oxford University. In August this year she was featured on the Radio 4 programme Between Ourselves, discussing the reality of living with schizophrenia. She’s still mad, but is she still laughing?

Dolly is a member of the Camberwell-based charity Creative Routes, an award winning interdisciplinary arts organisation run by, and for, the survivors of the mental health system and of mental distress. It aims to dissolve the stigma of mental illness by encouraging the unique creativity of mad people, promoting mental well-being and the acceptance of individuality in the wider community.

The Mad Book Fair offers the opportunity to buy and browse books, and to meet Dolly and other writers; it also features the launch of a major poetry competition taking the theme of ‘lost sheep’ as inspiration. The prize will be awarded by Andrew Motion in the new year. There will also be free book giveaways; eccentric music and performance from, amongst others, Dogfood, a dada-ish motley crew specialising in issues of
madness, love, death and silliness; plus an open mic spot for mad poets, art installations and mental health stalls.

www.dollysen.com
www.myspace.com/dozzyangel
www.chipmunkapublishing.com
www.madbookfair.org.uk

Dolly Sen is available for interview
Photos and review copies available on request

press enquiries to: Helen Maleed
tel/fax: 020 7732 4624 mobile: 07986 235 855
email: helen@greendesk.demon.co.uk

• 29th Sept 2006: I was on BBC Breakfast News this morning talking about my experience with mental health crisis services. This was in response to a BBC article about people suffering mental health problems who are being failed by poor access to key community services, a watchdog says.
  The Healthcare Commission review of 174 mental health teams in England found gaps in out-of-hours care, talking therapies and access to information. Click on the following link to see the news article
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/check/nolavconsole/ukfs_news/hi?redirect=st.stm&news=1&bbram=1&bbwm=1&nbram=1&nbwm=1&nol_storyid=5390964

• Thanks to everyone who came to my book launch: I had over 200 people come through the doors. I saw lots of old friends too. It was a magical evening.

• DADAFEST LITERARY AWARD: I have been shortlisted for the prestigious DaDaFest Literary Award. I will be going up for the awards ceremony on November 30th to see if I have won. Fingers crossed.

• RADIO 4 'AM I NORMAL?' : I will be on Radio 4 talking about the relative nature of normality. It will be broadcast on radio 4 on November 21st at 9 pm and repeated on wed nov22nd at 4.30.

• Robert Dellar says of 'Am I still laughing?': 'It's a sucess story, a love story and a travelogue, containing phrases of unforgettable poetry. A truly inspiring book.'

• A few more radio appearances: One in December on the World's Service's Health Check. One more recently on Radio 5 Live http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/noscript.shtml?
  /radio/aod/fivelive_aod.shtml?fivelive/uan1_fri