Wonderful World of Words

Greg Pliska

A composer and orchestrator, Greg Pliska has been solving and creating puzzles since he could read. He has been a puzzle writer and presenter for public radio’s Ask Me Another and A Way With Words, as well as a regular contributor to the MIT Mystery Hunt. Under the auspices of his company, Exaltation of Larks, he creates puzzle hunts for corporate, academic and individual clients. Greg has scored films, television shows, musicals, and opera, and his orchestrations can be heard every morning on NPR and at night on CBS Evening News. His latest film project, Push, is now streaming, and he has two shows, Trevor the Musical, and The Alchemist, running off-Broadway.

Will Shortz

Will Shortz is the crossword editor of The New York Times, puzzlemaster for NPR’s Weekend Edition, and founder/director of the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament. He directed Words from 2007 until 2019 and is the only person to have attended every Words weekend since the beginning in 1982. This October, Planet Word, the national museum on language, named Will their first “Word Honoree” of the year. Will owns the Westchester Table Tennis Center in his hometown of Pleasantville, N.Y.

Eric Berlin

Eric Berlin has had dozens of crosswords and other puzzles published in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and elsewhere. He has created live puzzle events for the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, the Connecticut Library Association, and New York City’s Museum of Mathematics, among others. Eric is the constructor behind Puzzlesnacks, a “snack-sized” weekly variety puzzle. In 2019, a collection of his Puzzlesnacks was published by Simon & Schuster.

A.J. Jacobs

A.J. Jacobs is an author, journalist, lecturer and human guinea pig. He has written four New York Times bestsellers that combine memoir, science, humor and a dash of self-help. Among his books are The Year of Living Biblically and The Know-It-All. He has told several Moth stories, and given several TED talks that have amassed over 10 million views. His latest book is The Puzzler, which The New York Times called “A romp, both fun and funny,” and which contains 20 original puzzles by Greg Pliska. Jacobs was the answer to 1 Down in the March 8, 2014 New York Times crossword puzzle.

David Feldman

David Feldman is the author of 13 books — 11 of them being collections of Imponderables, including the national bestsellers Why Do Clocks Run Clockwise?, When Do Fish Sleep?, and Do Penguins Have Knees?  He is also the co-creator of the board game, Malarky.  Since retirement from writing, Dave devotes most of his energy to supporting the Posse Foundation, playing duplicate bridge, consuming popular culture in all its forms, and hunting for great food in unlikely places.

David Kwong

As a magician and New York Times crossword puzzle constructor, David Kwong has delighted and confounded audiences worldwide. A TED Talk favorite, Kwong regularly speaks to companies and demonstrates the principles of illusion and the science of why your brain is fooled. Kwong was the head magic consultant for the worldwide hit Now You See Me. His virtual show, Inside the Box, garnered a Critic’s Pick from the New York Times and his live one-man show, The Enigmatist, played to sold-out crowds at the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles.

Jessi Grieser

Jessi Grieser is Associate Professor of Linguistics in the Department of English at the University of Tennessee. Her research focuses on the use of African American English style in the creation and maintenance of identities which are not necessarily ethnoracial in nature, particularly identities of place and class. Her book, The Black Side of the River: Race, Language, and Belonging in Washington, D.C. is published by Georgetown University Press.

Daniel Kelly

Daniel Kelly is an acclaimed composer/pianist who explores new projects of musical visionaries, and takes them worldwide. A recipient of the Chamber Music America/ASCAP Adventurous Programming Award, Chamber Music America Residency Partnership Grant, New York State Arts Council Individual Artist Grant and the Aaron Copland Fund, Kelly is also the co-founder and co-Artistic Director of Connection Works, an artist-run non-profit organization based in Brooklyn. His projects include Shakespeare in Jazz, Rakonto, Blind Visionaries, Duets with Ghosts, and others that seek to highlight the expansiveness of jazz, chamber, theatre, and rock genres.