Born of a Breton father and a Walloon mother, he spent his childhood in the town of Mantes-la-Jolie. He published several collections under his real name, Robert Lorho, Associate of French language and literature professor at the Lycee Chaptal Khâgne. In 1970, he took the pseudonym of Lionel Ray. Lionel Ray is president of the Mallarmé Academy and a member of committees of the journal la revue Europe, and Aujourd'hui.[1]
He teaches creative writing at the University of Paris-Sorbonne 4. He is a father of four children from his first two marriages: Anne, Frank, Adrien, and Philippe Lorho. He was married to Indian born French novelist Sumana Sinha. He lives in Paris.
12 poetas bengalis : recueil de poésie bengalie in French and Spanish, with Sumana Sinha. - Ed. Lancelot, 2006. Murcia.
Tout est chemins: Anthologie de la poésie bengalie in French with Sumana Sinha. - éd. Le Temps des cerises, Paris. 2007.
L'invention des bibliothèques (les poèmes de Laurent Barthélemy): Gallimard, 2007.
Le Procès de la vieille dame. Eloge de la poésie. Collection of essays. Éditions de la Différence. 2008.
Collaborations with painters
Le dessin est une mémoire : autour de l’œuvre graphique de Le Yaouanc. – Association culturelle de la Faculté des lettres et des langues de l’Université de Poitiers : Éditions de la Licorne, 1996, np [32 p.].
Plusieurs ouvrages sur et avec le peintre cubain Joaquin Ferrer : Joaquin Ferrer ou l'Imaginaire absolu (monograph, éd. Palantines, Quimper, 2001, 130 illustrations).
Sumana: recueil de neuf poèmes d'amour dedicated to his wife, accompanied by the painter Bardet C.J. and Bengal translation by Sumana Sinha.
Comme nuage et vent, recueil de 6 poèmes accompanied by 4 etchings by Els Baekelandt (Éditions Sanchez-Alamo, graphisme analogique de la zone opaque, Paris, 2006)