Constructors

43 LGBTQ+ constructors have contributed to Queer Qrosswords 1 and/or Queer Qrosswords 2.  What a lovely, fabulous, and talented group of LGBTQ+ folks!


Anonymous

Christopher Adams (he/him/his) publishes his own puzzles weekly at arctanxwords.blogspot.com. He graduated from Cornell University in 2014 with a major in mathematics and minors in physics and creative writing, after which he spent a year abroad teaching physics at Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar. He has been published in a variety of outlets, including (but not limited to) the American Values Club Crossword, the New York Times, and the Chronicle of Higher Education; outside of crosswords, he hosts, writes, and plays trivia locally in Iowa City. (Constructor in QQ1 and QQ2.)

Tracy Bennett (she/her/hers) manages a staff of copy editors for MathSciNet/Mathematical Reviews by day.  In the wee hours of the morning and night, she makes puzzles or thinks about puzzles or solves puzzles.  She is particularly excited to be stretching her editorial wings as co-editor for the Inkubator.  Lately, she has been considering trying her hand at specialty puzzles (cryptics, rows garden and acrostics). (Constructor in QQ1 and QQ2.)

Derek Bowman (he/him/his) is a gay crossword constructor from Winnipeg, Manitoba. He has constructed puzzles for his local gay publication Outwords, the Canadian queer-focused news publication Xtra, and is delighted to have his first Queer Qrosswords puzzle included in QQ2. (Constructor in QQ2.)

Abby Braunsdorf (she/her/hers) lives in an old house in Lafayette, Indiana, maintaining UNIX systems at Purdue by day, and watching an astounding amount of TV and video late into the night. She’s a fan of all sorts of puzzles, especially the steady of diet of cryptic crosswords she does at lunch. Encourage her to make more puzzles. (Constructor in QQ2.)

Alex Briñas (she/her/hers) is just a wee newbie when it comes to the puzzle-world. Although she was born, raised, and is currently living in New York, pieces of her heart and soul will always live in the Bay Area and Japan. She can often be found doodling, ukulele-ing, skateboarding poorly or, sometimes, getting mistaken for a tweenage boy. (Constructor in QQ1.)

Nate Cardin (he/him/his) is a high school chemistry teacher in Los Angeles, where he lives with his husband, Ben. In his spare time, he enjoys writing crossword puzzles (especially meta puzzles) and has had a few featured recently at Matt Gaffney’s Weekly Crossword Contest and AVCX. Last year, he also had a puzzle run in the New York Times. Find him on Twitter talking about crosswords, Survivor, or being super gay at @naytnaytnayt. (Constructor in QQ1.)

Emily Carroll (she/her/hers) is a medicine resident working in New York City where she lives with her wife, Bridget. In the rare moments she is let out of the hospital, she enjoys wandering aimlessly through Central Park, cooking, and taking way too many pictures of her cat. (Constructor in QQ2.)

Alexandra Carter (she/her/hers) is a white, middle-aged, lower-middle-class, radically intersectional Jewish lesbian feminist. She lives near Washington, DC, but the sea is home. Wordplay makes life worthwhile. She’s been solving crosswords for over 40 years, and this is her first serious attempt at construction. Thanks Chris Adams! (Constructor in QQ1.)

Zach D’Angelo (he/him/his) teaches GMAT and GRE prep courses in San Francisco and is ecstatic to co-publish his first crossword. Take that 2019 New Year’s resolution! Thank you to Chris Adams for your supportive hand-holding and to Nate for welcoming me into this vibrant community. (Constructor in QQ2.)

Scott Earl (he/him/his) lives in Austin, TX and works remotely as a project manager for a non-profit organization. He is new to the crossword-making world and would love to collaborate with budding or seasoned constructors, especially folks from any underrepresented groups in this space. His non-crossword goals include converting friends into Survivor fans, becoming fluent in American Sign Language, and running a marathon in every state. (Constructor in QQ2.)

Rachel Fabi (she/her/hers) is a queer professor in upstate New York who puts the “bi” in “public health bioethics.” Rachel is a long-time solver, occasional blogger, and new-ish constructor of crossword puzzles. She likes bad puns, good trivia, and arguing about health policy and ethics on the internet. (Constructor in QQ2.)

Kyle Franklin (he/him/his) lives in the Seattle area with his (rescued) Boston Terrier, Winston.  He works in development with a local hospital system.  Outside work, he can be found brewing strong coffee and IPAs, hiking around Puget Sound, working on remodeling projects around the house, and creating/solving crossword puzzles. (Constructor in QQ2.)

Tyler Fultz (they/them/theirs) is a queer and non-binary human from Silver Spring, Maryland, who’s been obsessed with metas since high school. Tyler is currently a Master’s student in Student Affairs in Higher Education at Colorado State University, and runs a to-be-named business creating mock escape rooms for university groups. (Constructor in QQ1.)

Niamh Girling (she/her/hers) and Mira Martin-Gray (she/her/hers) are a pair of rookie constructors and experienced romantic partners from Toronto, Canada. Apart from obsessing over crosswords, they enjoy cooking food from around the world, making experimental music, and watching Jeopardy. They can be reached at transsexualcruciverbalist@gmail.com. (Constructors in QQ2.)

Becca Greenstein (she/her/hers) leaned over her mother’s shoulder weekly as a kid while she did the Sunday New York Times puzzle, and eventually contributed so many answers that she had to have her own puzzle. She currently works as a science librarian. In her spare time, she enjoys biking, volunteering with Indivisible Chicago and Chicago Books to Women in Prison, playing with her cat, and baking. (Constructor in QQ1 and QQ2.)

Daniel Grinberg (he/him/his) is proud to be a part of QQ2! He has a PhD in Film and Media Studies and has even given an academic talk about the cultural dimensions of crosswords. He made his puzzle debut in the New York Times in August 2019 and hopes to publish in other venues soon. He lives with his partner Derek in Philadelphia. (Constructor in QQ2.)

Todd Gross (he/him/his) is originally from California, has lived in Texas (and learned to two-step there), and now calls Nevada home. He has written crosswords for the New York Times, Simon & Schuster, the Chronicle of Higher Education, and other outlets. He’s also been a member of IGRA, IAGLCWDC, and NABWMT. (Constructor in QQ1 and QQ2.)

Anna Gundlach (she/her/hers) is a trans woman from Olympia, Washington, and a lifelong puzzle nerd. She’s had a couple of crosswords in the Los Angeles Times a while back, and has only recently gotten back into making puzzles again. She also occasionally messes around with synths and drum machines. (Constructor in QQ1.)

Mark Halpin (he/him/his) is a stage designer and university professor whose original puzzles have appeared in the New York Times, NPR’s Ask Me Another, Will Shortz’s Wordplay, The Sondheim Review, and the MIT Mystery Hunt. Proceeds from his annual online Labor Day puzzle-hunts go to support The Trevor Project. Some of his puzzling illustrations can be seen in Eric Berlin’s third Winston Breen book, The Puzzler’s Mansion. Many of his puzzles are at www.markhalpin.com/puzzles/puzzles.html. (Constructor in QQ1 and QQ2.)

Marcus Hodges (he/him/his) is a 40 year old web/app developer living in Richmond, VA. In his spare time he enjoys making and listening to hip-hop and punk music, bonfires, bicycles, and napping with his cat, Dingbat. This is his first published puzzle. (Constructor in QQ2.)

Elizabeth Hook (she/her/hers) lives in Washington, DC and works in Earth Science by day. She grew up in a crossword-loving family, and is excited to learn more about crossword construction! (Constructor in QQ1.)

Gregg Katz (he/him/his) splits his time between Chicago and New York and is a big fan of all things puzzle-related. He is truly an enigma. This is his first published puzzle; he would like to thank The Mystery League, Dan, and Peter for help with its creation. (Constructor in QQ2.)

Andrew Kingsley (he/him/his) spends his time triangulated between three cities. Currently, he teaches English at the Riverdale Country School in the Bronx. On weekends, he’s in Philadelphia with his partner, David. Over the summer, he runs Boswords, a crossword tournament in Boston, with his friend John Lieb. (Constructor in QQ1 and QQ2.)

Russ Kale (he/him/his) lives in Wellington, New Zealand, and has spent ten years trying to convert the rest of the country to American crossword puzzles. He currently writes puzzles in his spare time while working for an escape room company. When not doing that, he is working his way through 1,001 Movies You Must See Before You Die. (Constructor in QQ1.)

Andy Kravis (he/him/his) is a puzzlemaker, editor, and trivia writer living in Brooklyn, New York. In addition to constructing and editing crosswords for various publications, he also works as an assistant for the New York Times crossword department, edits variety word puzzles for Joon Pahk’s site Outside the Box Puzzles, and co-teaches the JASA Crossword Class. He recently joined a recreational gay men’s tennis group, and he is a shameless pumpkin spice apologist. (Constructor in QQ1 and QQ2.)

Jenna LaFleur (she/her/hers) is a trans lesbian whose puzzles have appeared in the New York Times crossword app, the Puzzle Society crossword, and a few indie blogs. She’s also recently joined the team behind the Indie 500 crossword tournament in her hometown of DC. Her interests include linguistics, cats, sci-fi, podcasts, and indie rock. She tried to put “internet fiend” as her occupation at the ACPT but Will Shortz wouldn’t let her. (Constructor in QQ1 and QQ2.)

Johnny LaZebnik (he/him/his) is a children’s television writer from Los Angeles, California, where he still lives with his cat Anastasia. His interest in creating crossword puzzles was sparked by doing crossword puzzles, and he thought this process would be fairly easy for him. Turns out… twinks can’t read! Too bad. This looked like fun. (Constructor in QQ2.)

Ryan McCarty (he/him/his) is a bisexual technical consultant who lives in the D.C. metro area with his husband, Quinton, whom he married last year. Their main wedding favor was a 40-page booklet of puzzles themed around their lives. Over a dozen of Ryan’s (often challenging!) puzzles have appeared in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, and more. Ryan is a baritone in multiple D.C. ensembles and composes choral music. (Constructor in QQ2.)

Jack Mowat (he/him/his) is a gay (almost) 20 year old crossword enthusiast from Omaha, Nebraska who made sure “Omaha” appeared somewhere in his NYT debut. He is currently a sophomore at the University of Notre Dame studying civil engineering and sustainability. He is very happy to be participating in QQ2 and is excited for many wonderful years of puzzling to come. (Constructor in QQ2.)

Claire Muscat (she/her/hers) is a crossword enthusiast/constructor living in Chicago, Illinois. Her puzzles have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, the American Values Club, and the New York Times crossword app. She identifies as bisexual and is proud to be part of the queer community. (Constructor in QQ1.)

Trip Payne (he/him/his) is the puzzle editor for the daily crossword app Crosswords With Friends and has been making puzzles professionally since 1983, which is amazing since he claims to be 35 years old. He lives in Sherman Oaks, California, where he spends much of his free time playing escape rooms and attending immersive theatre. And men: if all that intrigues you, he’s single. (Constructor in QQ1 and QQ2.)

David Quarfoot (he/him/his) (DQ) was born and raised in Dallas, Texas. He now lives in San Diego, where he teaches mathematics, statistics, and mathematics education at UCSD. Outside of crossword construction, he enjoys snowboarding, playing cello/violin, hiking, and watching Super Mario Maker streamers on Twitch/YouTube. (Constructor in QQ1.)

Daniel (Dani) Raymon (he/him/his) has been making dailies and cryptics for The New York Times since 2007, and this year he got his first puns & anagrams published there as well.  He has also made puzzles for Tablet Magazine (a Jewish publication) and Gotham Volleyball (the largest gay sports league in NYC).  He works as a compliance analyst at a bank in Manhattan, and he’s looking forward to his next trip: Taipei Pride! (Constructor in QQ2.)

Danny Reichert (he/him/his) is a native New Yorker obsessed with mystery novels, game shows, movies of all kinds, British detective shows and tennis. He is super honored to be part of this collection! (Constructor in QQ2.)

Andrew J. Ries (he/him/his) is a gay crossword writer living in central Oregon. You can solve more of his puzzles at ariespuzzles.com. (Constructor in QQ1 and QQ2.)

Claire L. Rimkus (she/they) is a chemist from Massachusetts. She is very grateful to Nate for making the project accessible to newcomers and to her co-constructor Andrew for all of his guidance. (Constructor in QQ2.)

Hannah Slovut (she/her/hers) lives in Minneapolis with her cat, Penelope. She works on political campaigns. In her free time, she likes to play board games, see musicals, and spend time with friends. (Constructor in QQ2.)

Jeff Slutzky (he/him/his) is a legal editor in New York City, where he lives with his husband Matt. In addition to crosswords and other types of puzzles, his interests include theater, Disney theme parks, and history. He was excited to have his first (co-)constructed puzzle appear in the New York Times in January 2019. (Constructor in QQ2.)

Dave Sullivan (he/him/his) lives in rural Vermont with his husband of over 25 years, Gary. They raise goats, chickens, bees and lots of yummy veggies. Dave enjoys running, reading and, of course, creating puzzles! He’s very proud to be collaborating with a new constructor for this compilation. (Constructor in QQ1 and QQ2.)

Sam Trabucco (he/him/his) is a 26-year-old data scientist originally from crossword-infamous Natick, Massachusetts, now living in the Bay Area. His biggest achievement to date is debuting the term SEXILE in a New York Times puzzle. His non-crossword hobbies include board games, boring people with etymology facts, and ranking La Croix flavors. (Constructor in QQ1 and QQ2.)

Finn Vigeland (he/him/his) is a transportation planner living in Washington, DC. His first crossword was published when he was 18, so he’s been at this whole professional puzzle thing for nearly a decade… and is still waiting for the day an editor other than Nate runs with his proposed clue for “otter.” He’s passionate about biking, trains, Jennifer Lopez’s upcoming Oscar campaign, and a good Caprese sandwich. (Constructor in QQ1 and QQ2.)