Will Shortz

Will Shortz was born and raised on an Arabian horse farm in Crawfordsville, Indiana.[1] He was drawn to puzzles at an early age; in eighth grade he wrote a paper titled “Puzzles as a Profession.”[2] (The paper earned him a B+.)[3] At age 13, Shortz wrote to Language on Vacation author Dmitri Borgmann for advice on how to pursue a career in puzzles.[4] At age 16, Shortz began regularly contributing crossword puzzles to Dell publications.[5] He eventually graduated from Indiana University in 1974,[6] and is the only person known to hold a college degree in enigmatology,[7] the study of puzzles. Shortz wrote his thesis about the history of American word puzzles.[8] Shortz achieved this by designing his own curriculum through Indiana University's Individualized Major Program.[9] He also earned a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Virginia School of Law (1977), but did not sit for the bar exam and began a career in puzzles instead.[10] Shortz is the author or editor of more than 100 books and owns over 20,000 puzzle books and magazines dating back to 1545, reportedly the world's largest private library on the subject.[11] He is a member and historian of the National Puzzlers' League.

Shortz began his career at Penny Press Magazines,[10] then moved to Games magazine for 15 years, serving as its editor from 1989–1993. He has been the crossword puzzle editor for The New York Times since 1993 (the fourth in the paper's history, following Eugene Thomas Maleska), and has been the puzzle master on NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday since the program was started in 1987. He is the founder of the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament (1978), and has served as its director since that time. He founded the World Puzzle Championship in 1992 and is a director of the U.S. Puzzle Team. Shortz is also weekly guest on NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday where he hosts the Sunday Puzzle, a cooperative game between the show's host and one of the show's listeners. The lucky player is picked randomly from a group of submissions containing the correct answer to a qualifier puzzle issued the week before.[12]

• In February 2009, Shortz helped introduce the KenKen puzzle into The New York Times.[13]
• In 2013, Shortz lent his name and talents in puzzle writing and editing to a new bimonthly publication entitled Will Shortz' WordPlay, published by PennyPress.[14]
• He has said that his favorite crossword of all time is the Election Day crossword of November 5, 1996, designed by Jeremiah Farrell. It had two correct solutions with the same set of clues, one saying that the "Lead story in tomorrow's newspaper (!)" would be "BOB DOLE ELECTED", and the other correct solution saying "CLINTON ELECTED".[15] His favorite individual clue is "It might turn into a different story" (whose solution is SPIRAL STAIRCASE).[16]

• On May 3, 2008, Shortz gave the commencement speech for his alma mater, Indiana University. As an introduction to his speech, Shortz quizzed the audience on well-known IU graduates and their unconventional majors. He advised recent graduates to pick a career in which they "don't mind the least interesting parts." Shortz apparently also wrote brainteasers and a hidden message that were included in the printed commencement program.[28]
• In May 2010, he was given an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Indiana.[29]
• In 2012, he received the Sam Loyd Award from the Association for Games & Puzzles International for creating interest in mechanical puzzles.[30]
• In May 2016, he gave the commencement speech in 2018 at the University of Virginia Law School Commencement.[31]
• In May 2018, Shortz was given an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Indiana University.

Shortz resides in Pleasantville, New York, where he works from home. He is an avid table tennis player. In May 2011, with Barbadian champion (and his long-time friend) Robert Roberts,[32] he opened one of the largest table tennis clubs in the Northeast in Pleasantville.[33] In 2012, Shortz set a goal for himself to play table tennis every day for a year, but surpassed his goal, playing for 1000 consecutive days.[34] In his free time, Shortz enjoys biking, reading, traveling, and collecting antique puzzle books.[35]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Will Shortz.

• A Puzzling Occupation from the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament
• Opens New Table Tennis Club in Westchester 2011
• Bookologist Interviews Will Shortz About Crossword Puzzle Collecting
• American Crossword Puzzle Tournament
• New York Times crosswords some sample puzzles and crossword forums are free; access to the daily puzzle requires a paid subscription
• New York Times crossword editor to give "puzzling" lecture at IU
• Synopses of Will Shortz puzzle segments on Weekend Edition Sunday
• The Puzzle Master – Wired magazine interview
• WORDPLAY site for Independent Lens on PBS
• Wordplay The Movie at IMDb
• An Insight of the Journey of Puzzle Master