A former John Kyrle High School pupil, 21-year-old Ben Ray, is rapidly building a name for himself as a writer to watch.

Ben’s first collection of poems, ‘After the Poet, the Bar’, has just been published as a result of his winning the 2015 Geoff Stevens Memorial Prize.

Ben has always used poetry as a means to express himself. His home town of Ross-on-Wye, and the area around it, feature prominently in his work.

He was one of the winners of the Christmas poetry competition organised by Ross Town Council in 2013. He was also Young Poet Laureate in Herefordshire when he was just 15.

Herefordshire Council’s library service organised the competition and the winning poets had the chance to perform at the Ledbury Poetry Festival as well as opportunities to meet and perform with other professional poets.

Ben has been involved in lots of organisations in Ross including the Scouts, and Ross Lions Club. He was an enthusiastic member of Xentricity, Ben told the Ross Gazette that a highlight was performing As You Like It at Langstone Court. He was also a leading member, and Chairman, of the Hope Support Services Y-Team.

Currently studying history at Oxford, Ben splits his time between there and his family home in Walford. The local landscape often inspires Ben’s work and he thinks it is very relevant to the people who live here. He is currently promoting his book, conducting readings in various venues such as Rossiter Books in Ross on Friday, September 23rd, and would be happy to give readings or talk about his work to other groups. He is also hoping to take part in workshops with young people, to encourage them to see poetry as relevant. He enjoyed doing this during his time as Young Poet Laureate and would be very happy to get involved in something like this again.

Winning the 2015 Geoff Stevens Memorial Prize was a huge achievement for Ben, and he is delighted that the publicity has brought his poetry to a wider audience, but he is very keen that Ross people experience his work as he loves this area and has always written about it.

Ben said:?“I try to interpret the world around me through my work, and have always been fascinated with interaction between language, nature and us - using poetry to explore these complex relationships. Most of all, I think poetry is there to be shared, savoured and enjoyed.”

Ben enjoys working on many different poetic projects, he is keen to take commissions, and if you would like to discuss any aspect of his work or to find out more about it you can visit https://benraypoetwordpress.wordpress.com/

His book After the Poet, the Bar is available from Ben, Rossiters Bookshop in Ross or visit www.indigodreams.co.uk/ben-ray/4592680739