XWord Info’s stated goal is to celebrate NYT crosswords and the people who make them. If you’re an NYT constructor, we want to know more about you.
On XWord Info, every constructor has their own author page. Click any constructor photo to see it. There’s a baseball card with stats, grid thumbnails, a list of collaborators, etc. Here’s David Steinberg’s. Right above the grids, you’ll see a new feature: some biographical information about him.
David has been collecting fascinating stories about constructors from the early years and we want to make them more visible. Modern constructors are just as interesting, of course! Here’s Daniel Okulitch’s author page. Or Alina Abidi’s. Or (why not?) Bill Clinton’s.
What finally got us going on this feature was the amazing detective work done by Flip Koski. He’s responsible for photos and background info for some of the most prolific pre-Shortz constructors: Jeanette K. Brill, Joy L. Wouk, Lois Sidway, and two Herbs: Herb Risteen and Herbert Ettenson. Each has over 80 published NYT crosswords. Mr. Risteen has over 240!
We only have a few bios so far. This page shows the ones we have. Most come from pre-Shortz research, or from published notes on Sunday crosswords. We want to add more.
If you’re an NYT constructor, please send us a short blurb about yourself. It can be changed at any time but aim for information with long-term relevancy: where you live, what your day job is or was, hobbies, professional puzzle work, maybe that time you acted in a movie or won big on Jeopardy! We reserve the right to edit, of course.
This will take some time to build up but we’re starting now. If things go well, we’ll advertise this request more broadly. You can be a pioneer. Send us your story today.