Crossword Puzzles
Crossword construction has largely jogged alongside my journalism career. The majority of my published puzzles have been constructed on assignment through connections established either through fellow writers and editors or through publicists and sources. Most recently, that’s been true of a puzzle that ran in both the Chicago Sun-Times and at WBEZ.org, and with the regular puzzles in National Wildlife magazine. I’ve also done puzzles germinated along these lines for Princeton Alumni Weekly, the Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Puzzle Book series, Chicago magazine, and the Ravinia program book.
I was also the every-month puzzle constructor for the short-lived publication ThriveNYC.
Puzzles I constructed and submitted through the industry-standard on-spec procedure have appeared in The Los Angeles Times and The New York Sun.
National Wildlife
I started constructing crosswords quarterly for National Wildlife magazine beginning with its Winter 2024 issue. The brief for the puzzle includes peppering in as much wildlife content as possible, with only light themes. The exception is the first puzzle, from Winter ’24, which had a more pervasive theme.
ThriveNYC
I constructed regularly for the short-lived publication ThriveNYC, a monthly-ish print magazine aimed at the middle-aged and older. These crosswords were intended for that audience, people who were 50 or older in the mid-aughts. Some of the clues would be more familiar to people solving during those years, with that demographic’s knowledge base.
Chicago Public Media
This puzzle was assigned by WBEZ.org to commemorate the year 2024 in Chicago news. It was also printed in the Chicago Sun-Times, WBEZ’s sister media organization under the Chicago Public Media banner.