Local poet wins £2,000 prize

by Lesley Wilkinson
A WARRINGTON woman gained £2,000 for the winning poem in this year’s High Sheriff’s Cheshire Prize for Literature.
Rita Ray, from Lymm, won with her work entitled Still Life with Oranges and Walnuts, (Luis Melendez).
She was presented with her award by the northern poet Simon Armitage, who scooped this year’s Keats-Shelley poetry prize just days before.
When the first line of her poem was read out, as winner, Rita was “absolutely astonished.”
Rita, a retired English lecturer, is a member of North West based group SixPoets and has published several poems and children’s stories.
She said: “I was listening to them announce the winners in reverse order and then I heard Simon Armitage say the first line of my poem and I thought ‘my goodness – that’s mine that he’s reading’, and I just froze like a rabbit in the headlights.
“Then, as it began to sink in, I got quite excited and started saying to the people I was with ‘that’s my poem he’s reading!’. It was a real privilege to hear him reading out my work, I felt very honoured.”
The runner-up was Helen Clare, from Manchester, for her poem Gerris Lacustris (translated as Pond Skater). She has worked as a writer in schools across Warrington.
The competition is run by the University of Chester and is open to those who live in or have connections with Cheshire.
Pictured: High Sherriff of Cheshire Diana Barbour with winner Rita Ray and poet Simon Armitage.