List of crossword designers
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A game designer is a person who invents games at the conceptual level.[1] Crossword designers are also known as crossword compilers, cruciverbalists, crossword writers, crossword constructors, or crossword setters.[2][3] The following is a list of notable crossword designers.
| Designer | Notable work | Honors | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Erik Agard | crossword puzzle creator for the Los Angeles Times and The New York Times | [4] | |
| Erik Agard | crossword editor of USA Today | [5] | |
| David Astle | creates crossword puzzles under the pseudonym DA for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald | [6] | |
| Adrian Bell | first compiler of The Times crossword | [7] | |
| Tracy Bennett | edits The New York Times Games products Wordle and Strands | [8][9] | |
| Jacques Bens | head of crosswords for L'Express and Lire | [10] | |
| Patrick Berry | crossword puzzle creator for the The New York Times, The New Yorker, and Harper's Magazine | Merl Reagle MEmoRiaL Award | [11][12] |
| Harold T. Bers | crossword creator for The Atlanta Constitution, The Washington Post, and the New York Herald-Tribune; credited with inventing the themed crossword puzzle while working for The New York Times | Crossword Puzzle Hall of Fame | [13][14] |
| Seth Bisen-Hersh | contributor for The New York Times crossword | [15][16] | |
| Joyce Cansfield | crossword setter for The Times and crossword compiler The Listener. under the pseudonym Machiavelli | [17] | |
| Alan Connor | crossword editor for The Guardian and sets the Everyman cryptic crossword for The Observer | [18][19] | |
| Nuala Considine | crossword compiler for The Irish Times, The Daily Telegraph, The Spectator, Financial Times, Woman's Realm, The Washington Post, and New Scientist | [20] | |
| Emily Cox | wrote a monthly cryptic crossword with her husband Henry Rathvon for The Atlantic and The Wall Street Journal under the pseudonym Hex | [21] | |
| Ruth Crisp | compiled crosswords forThe Guardian under the names Crispa and Vixen | [22] | |
| Jonathan Crowther | crossword puzzle setter for The Observer with the pseudonym Azed | [23][24][25] | |
| John Derek Crozier | compiler of the cryptic crossword in The Irish Times, with the pseudonym Crosaire | [26] | |
| Leonard Dawe | crossword compiler for The Daily Telegraph | [27] | |
| Colin Dexter | crosswords for The Oxford Times | [28] | |
| Tom Driberg | compiler of a regular, highly risqué cryptic crossword puzzle for Private Eye as Tiresias | [29] | |
| Jacques Drillon | head of the crossword section of Le Nouvel Observateur | [30] | |
| Roy Earle | compiler of a cryptic crossword published daily in The Irish Times under the pseudonym Mac An Iarla | [31] | |
| Sam Ezersky | crossword constructor for the New York Times games department | [32] | |
| Joel Fagliano | compiler of the Mini Crossword and The New York Times crossword | [33] | |
| Margaret Farrar | first crossword puzzle editor for The New York Times and editor of crossword books | Crossword Puzzle Hall of Fame | [34][35] |
| Jeremiah Farrell | contributor to The New York Times crossword | [36] | |
| John Finnemore | created cryptic crosswords under the pseudonym Emu for The Listener and The Times | [37][23] | |
| Vic Fleming | created crosswords for numerous publications and also I Swear puzzles book | [38][39][40] | |
| Matt Gaffney | created crosswords for Billboard, Chicago Tribune, The Daily Beast GAMES magazine, Los Angeles Times, and The New York Times | [41][42] | |
| Mangesh Ghogre | created crossword puzzles published in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Los Angeles Times | [43][44] | |
| Walter B. Gibson | created crossword puzzles for Philadelphia publications | [45] | |
| Bernice Gordon | created crossword puzzles for the The New York Times and Los Angeles Times | [46] | |
| Dave Gorman | cryptic crosswords setter for The Independent as Bluth, The Daily Telegraph as Django, and The Guardian as Fed | [47] | |
| John Galbraith Graham | cryptic crossword compiler for The Guardian under the pseudonym Araucaria | [48] | |
| Paul Green | created around 300 CommuniCrostics crosswords for the IEEE Communications Magazine | [49] | |
| Barbara Hall | crosswords puzzles editor for The Sunday Times; also created and set puzzles for the Daily Mail, The Yorkshire Post, and The Observer | [50] | |
| John Halpern | cryptic crossword compiler for The Guardian, The Independent, The Times, The Daily Telegraph, and Financial Times | [48] | |
| Sarah Hayes | crossword and advanced cryptics creator associated with The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, The Independent, New Statesman, Financial Times, and The Times, using the names Anarche, Aranya, and Rosa | [51][52] | |
| Francis Heaney | puzzle writer and editor-at-large for GAMES Magazine | [53][2] | |
| Tyler Hinman | crossword contributor to the The New York Times and The Onion | [54][2] | |
| Henry Hook | created crosswords and cryptics for Games and was a crossword creator for King Features Syndicate, The New York Times, and The Boston Globe Sunday edition | [55] | |
| Helene Hovanec | crossword puzzle book writer for children | [2] | |
| Margaret Irvine | set cryptic crosswords for The Guardian under the pseudonym Nutmeg | [56] | |
| Maura Jacobson | contributed weekly to The New York Times crossword for 31 years | [57] | |
| Daniel Larsen | constructed crossword puzzles for The New York Times when he was thirteen years old | [58][59] | |
| Frank W. Lewis | created weekly crossword for The Nation for fifty years | [60] | |
| Wyna Liu | crossword creator and editor of The New York Times Connections | [61] | |
| Aimee Lucido | crossword constructor and editor for The New York Times crossword | [5][62] | |
| William Lutwiniak | crossword co-editor of The Washington Post magazine and contributor to the New York Herald Tribune | [63] | |
| Derrick Somerset Macnutt | crossword contributor to The Observer under the pseudonym Ximenes | [64] | |
| Eugene T. Maleska | crossword puzzle constructor who edited The New York Times crossword | [65] | |
| Don Manley | crossword contributor to The Guardian and crossword editor of Church Times, under the pseudonyms Bradman, Duck, Giovanni, and Quixote | [66] | |
| Edward Powys Mathers | pioneer of the cryptic crossword; created crossword for The Observor as Torquemada | [48][23] | |
| Andrea Carla Michaels | contributor for The New York Times crossword | [67] | |
| Jeremy Morse | writer of cryptic crossword clues for The Observer and word puzzles for Word Ways: The Journal of Recreational Linguistics | [68][69] | |
| Stanley Newman | editor of the Newsday crossword puzzle | [70][2] | |
| Manny Nosowsky | crossword contributor to The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal | [71] | |
| Juan Ostoic | wrote crossword puzzles for La Tercera using the pseudonym Jota O | [72] | |
| Trip Payne | crossword contributing editor to Games World of Puzzles | [73] | |
| Georges Perec | created crossword-puzzles for Le Point | [74] | |
| John Pidgeon | crossword compiler for the The Daily Telegraph under the pseudonym Petitjean | [75] | |
| Brendan Emmett Quigley | created crossword for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and The Boston Globe | [76][2] | |
| A. N. Prahlada Rao | Kannada-language crossword compiler | [77] | |
| Henry Rathvon | wrote a monthly cryptic crossword with his wife Emily Cox for The Atlantic and The Wall Street Journal under the pseudonym Hex | [21] | |
| Merl Reagle | crossword constructor for the San Francisco Chronicle; syndicated in more than fifty papers | [78] | |
| Alistair Ferguson Ritchie | crossword compiler for in The Sketch and The Listener, under the pseudonym Afrit | [48] | |
| Anna Shechtman | constructs crossword puzzles for The New Yorker and The New York Times | [79] | |
| Mike Shenk | crosswood puzzle editor of The Wall Street Journal | [80] | |
| Will Shortz | puzzle designer for The New York Times crossword | Sam Loyd Award | [81][82][54] |
| Evelyn E. Smith | crossword compiler | [83] | |
| Bob Smithies | compiler of cryptic crossword for The Guardian under the pseudonym Bunthorne | [84] | |
| Stephen Sondheim | credited with introducing British cryptic crosswords to the US through a series he created for New York magazine, later consolidated as Stephen Sondheim's Crossword Puzzles | [85][60] | |
| Roger Squires | recognised by Guinness World Records as "The World's Most Prolific Crossword Compiler"; crossword editor at the Birmingham Post; and crossword compiler for The Daily Telegraph, The Times, The Guardian, The Sun, and The Financial Times, using the pseudonyms Bower, Dante, Hodge, Icarus, and Rufus | [24][86] | |
| David Steinberg | editor of the Universal Crossword, a daily puzzle published by Andrews McMeel Syndication; former crossword constructor for The New York Times and Los Angeles Times | [87][2] | |
| Benjamin Tatar | created crossword puzzles for Dell Publishing | [88] | |
| Jan Buckner Walker | creator of the Tribune Media Services' Kids Across Parents Down family crossword | [89] | |
| Will Weng | crossword puzzle editor for The New York Times | [35] | |
| Arthur Wynne | Invented the modern crossword puzzle while working for the New York World | Crossword Puzzle Hall of Fame | [90][53] |