New Worcestershire Young Poet Laureate 'really excited' to carry out the role
Lauren Hawkesworth from Bromsgrove was announced as the winner of the 2026/27 competition earlier this year
The new Young Poet Laureate for Worcestershire has said they hope through the role they can help inspire others to write and share their work.
Worcestershire County Council and Severn Arts announced earlier this year that Bromsgrove's Lauren Hawkesworth has been crowned Worcestershire’s Young Poet Laureate for 2026–2027.
The competition, run in partnership between the two, is in its sixteenth year and aims to give young writers the chance to express themselves through it.
On being named this year's winner, Lauren said: "Everyone was amazing, it was such high quality and it was an honour to even be considered alongside all the rest of the people there.
"There was such variation, there were people of all ages, and I was just really mind blown.
"I was a bit overwhelmed even because I just wasn't expecting anything at all from it and just really excited."
The theme picked for this year was freedom, with the finalists taking part in performances in front of judges at The Hive in Worcester that highlighted both their writing skill and stage performance.
Following their win, Lauren will now work as an ambassador for creative writing and will take part in projects throughout the year.
"I'm really looking forward to getting to write more and getting to share my poetry more because I don't really share what I write as often as I should," they said.
"I think if I could inspire other people to write and to share their writing and inspire young people and get to have more performance opportunities, that would be quite nice.
"I really like performing, I come from an acting background and that's what really drew me to it and what I'm looking forward to as well, getting to write more, getting to perform more and hopefully getting to mean something to other people."
Other winners were London Ward, who won the school year 6, 7, and 8 category, while Mercedes Ampomah picked up top spot in the school year 9, 10, and 11 one.