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Two writers announced as Crawley’s first poet laureates

October 21, 2026
Woodzy and Iffat Rahman

Woodzy and Iffat Rahman have been announced as Crawley’s first ever Poet Laureates at a celebration event on National Poetry Day (October 1) at Creative Crawley’s venue in County Mall. 

Local poetry legend and host, Woodzy, will take on the role for the first year, with Iffat Rahman, a poetically powerful young rising star who has reached viral TikTok success, taking over the reins in year two. 

Crawley’s Poet Laureates will celebrate the town, connect with local people through poetry, and encourage more people locally to get involved in poetry. The Laureates will be in post over 2027, Crawley’s 80th year as it exists today, marking its establishment as a new town in 1947. 

The scheme is run by New Writing South, the literature development agency for the South East, funded by Arts Council England and the launch is supported by Creative Crawley. 

Woodzy said: ‘I am extremely excited to be doing this role in Crawley. I’ve done lots of work in Crawley over the last few years and there’s lots going on here now. It’s vital to provide a platform to bring together local creatives and help shine a light on the amazing stories that can come from Crawley.’

The standard of applicants was very high. Two poets have been chosen as they both have much to offer through their work and the communities they will connect with. While they will take separate years, they are also both excited to collaborate.

Iffat said: ‘Crawley is my home, born and brought up here for most of my life. Holding this position means I get to represent this town and support in putting it on the map in terms of creativity. I’m really excited to work with global majority women in the town. As a Sri Lankan artist myself, I know how hard it is to try and get people in this demographic to continue the arts post 16. I’d really love to encourage my community to keep picking up the pen, paint brush or mic, even when the other parts of life seem to get in the way.’ 

Woodzy is an award winning Flo Poet, 2x TEDx Speaker and winner of UK unsigned 2019. He has performed on BAFTA winning TV show Life And Rhymes also on Sky Sports Fight Night Live at Wembley Arena. He said, in his term as laureate he is ‘extremely excited to be doing this role in Crawley. I’m excited to bring together local creatives and help shine a light on the amazing stories locally. I have previously run events here with the incredible Creative Crawley. I’m looking to connect with as many people from Crawley as possible. My main mission is to change peoples’ perception of poetry. It’s not just for one type of people, poetry is for everyone and is everywhere when you look close enough.’  

Roy McFarlane, former Birmingham Poet Laureate will be mentoring both Woodzy and Iffat. He said, Woodzy and Iffat Rahaman encompass all the hallmarks of a laureate; bold, innovative, lyrical excellence and a desire to make poetry known in every corner of Crawley. Congratulations.’

Meet the Laureates

Woodzy and Iffat answered some questions for us about their history and relationship with poetry, and why they’re excited to be Poet Laureate in Crawley.

Iffat Rahman

What first got you interested in poetry? 

I’ve always been a writer of some sorts, from short stories, journals, essays and poetry. I started to take my poetry more seriously at 14 when I won runner up of a poetry competition that took me to London and let me network with other artists which let me understand the power of the tool. 
Iffat Rahman reading at the Crawley Poet Laureate launch at Creative Crawley
When the judge said “if this is how you’re writing now, imagine in 10 years time!” Now, 7 years on, it’s something I have constantly worked on, have evolved with and I’m using it as a tool to engage with topics at hand. 
 

Tell us about some highlights of your journey with poetry so far?

There have been so many highlights for me. One of them was when my poem “I Need to Pray” went viral on TikTok with more than a million views because of the relatability of the poetry to my western Muslim audience who hadn’t seen themselves in this type of work before. To this day, I get messages from people who talk about how the piece resonates with them which is a poet’s biggest dream really! 
 
Other moments would be doing my bespoke piece in Crawley in 2022 in front of my grandparents who were visiting the UK from Sri Lanka, getting to see my passion in real time and not just hear about it over the phone. 
 
Also being featured in an internationally published anthology “Letters to the Holy Land” a charity collection for Palestine which was featured in Vogue Arabia!

Who is your favourite poet and why?

I always struggle with this question because I have much love for so many types of poets, their different styles and the topics that they talk about. The one who has been influential in my own work is Rudy Francisco, who is an American spoken word artist writing on the topics like race, masculinity and love. I got to see him perform live a few years ago and the way he captured an audience made me realise how powerful the tool is, especially when paired with a strong performance. 

What do you love about Crawley? What makes you excited to hold this position in Crawley?

Crawley is my home, born and brought up here for most of my life. My favourite thing is how connected it is, it is truly the portal to the rest of the world. With Gatwick Airport down the road and the trains that take me up to London a few times a week, it’s the space people can come and go. Holding this position in Crawley means I get to represent this town and support in putting it on the map in terms of creativity. There is so much talent here which I think deserves to be shown and engaged with. 

Which communities are you looking forward to connecting with as Crawley Poet Laureate?

I’m really excited to work with global majority women in the town. As a Sri Lankan artist myself, I know how hard it is to try and get people in this demographic to continue the arts post 16. I’d really love to encourage my community to keep picking up the pen, paint brush or mic, even when the other parts of life seem to get in the way. 

How are you feeling about being one of two Poet Laureates? 

It’s so exciting to do this for the first time, and do it alongside Woodzy who I’ve known for quite a few years now. He is an incredible artist and puts so much into his work and also engaging with others in the community to get into writing and spoken word. It’s going to be great to collaborate and engage with the local community and show others the range of ways poetry and spoken word can be used. 

What does being Crawley Poet Laureate mean for you as a poet? What impact do you think it will have on your poetic practice?

This is an opportunity to continue my favourite parts about being a poet, which is writing and engaging with people but with a lot more support! It will let me be able to work on some cool projects to get the Crawley community writing but hopefully give me the opportunity to write some pieces about what the community is feeling for events and other moments in time. 
 
I’m hoping this will challenge my writing too, get me to be creative, think outside of my comfort zone and grow my style of writing. 
 

What partnerships would you like to build during your time as Poet Laureate? 

I’d love to build with anyone both within and outside the local community. Anyone from local schools, youth groups, local businesses, religious spaces but also outside of Crawley in the London, Brighton and Sussex areas to see how they can support Crawley artists as well as how Crawley artists can support them. I think there is so much this community could benefit from as well as offer so I’d really want to amplify those connected where possible. 

Woodzy

What first got you interested in poetry? 
 
Well, you could say I was always destined to be a poet as I was born on world poetry day (21st March). I’ve always had a love of language through story telling, hip hop music and later through spoken word and poetry. I remember being in college and watching Suli Breaks poem “hate school, love education” and being captivated from the way it spoke to not only me, but a whole generation. 
Woodzy reading at the Crawley Poet Laureate launch at Creative Crawley
Tell us about some highlights of your journey with poetry so far?
 
Other than being Crawley’s first ever Poet Laureate, some of my journey highlights have been performing at Wembley Arena, appearing on BAFTA award winning tv show “Life And Rhymes” hosted by the late, great professor Benjamin Zephaniah. Releasing my first poetry collection “Peace Full Thirty”. Opening for the legendary John Cooper Clarke to being invited back to my school to perform and do a talk. But I would say most importantly poetry had lead to meet some of the people I now call my closest friends. I am really excited to see what the next part of my journey looks like within poetry and where my pen will take me next. 
 
Who is your favourite poet and why?
 
For me it’s so hard to pick just one favourite poet. So here’s a few – Natalie Stewart from Floetry. Natalie is a mentor of mine. It’s an honour being one of the “Flo poets” in her collective. I’ve grown so much not only as a poet but as a person learning from her knowledge and wisdom. She often sends me prompts to write to and we share work. For me that’s such a wonderful privilege to have. 
 
One of my other favourites is Rudy Francisco. I had the honour of meeting Rudy when he was last in London and even got to write with him and a few other poets after one of his shows. The way he writes is incredible and I believe even uses some techniques that nobody else has. 
 
What do you love about Crawley? What makes you excited to hold this position in Crawley?
 
I am extremely excited to be doing this role in Crawley. As someone who has grown up locally and struggled to find much happening creativity wise. I have always had to travel to either London or Brighton to find poetry and spoken word events. So for me, it will be vital to provide a platform to bring together local creatives and help shine a light on the amazing stories that can come from Crawley. I have previously run events here with the incredible Creative Crawley. We ran some events 2 years ago called “Woodzy & Friends” this was to platform poetry and other art forms locally and give people a monthly creative night to attend. 
I am very excited to announce these events are now also coming back with support from the Arts Council. Happening every last Friday of the month in October, November, January, February and March. Being Poet Laureate will really help bring all of this together and add to the events. 
 
Which communities are you looking forward to connecting with as Crawley Poet Laureate?
 
I’m looking to connect with as many people from Crawley as possible. My main mission is to change peoples perception on poetry. It’s not just for one type of people, poetry is for everyone and is everywhere when you look close enough. 
I want to connect with local school, colleges and to be honest as many people as I can from all different backgrounds. To give a voice to people who believe they aren’t heard. Poetry can be loud. I want my time as Poet Laureate in Crawley to make the town proud. 
 
I can’t wait to get started. Let’s create something special to continue putting Crawley on the map. 
 
Poetry to the world. 

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