Wonderful World of Words
November 13–15, 2026
Wonderful World of Words
A wonderful weekend for all those who love language, puzzles, and games! Founded in 1982 by the wonderful Gloria Rosenthal and her husband Larry, now one of Mohonk’s longest-running theme weekends, Wonderful World of Words invites you to explore wit, wisdom, and wordplay with some of our finest linguists, lexicographers, and language-lovers!
Sharpen your pencils, limber up your brain, and match wits with some of the best minds of our age!
How to Participate:
When making your reservation, please let us know you are interested in attending the Wonderful World of Words.
What’s Included
Your stay at Mohonk Mountain House includes access to countless activities and experiences for guest of all ages, including our indoor pool, tennis courts, show gardens, and an award-winning spa. Discover all that Mohonk has to offer during your mountaintop getaway.
Entertainment
Themed Mohonk Signature Events, featuring live music and engaging performances, changing daily
Last Year’s Events Highlights
Past Program Leaders
Greg Pliska
A composer and orchestrator, Greg Pliska has been solving and creating puzzles since he could read. He is Chief Puzzle Officer for Hello Puzzlers!, with AJ Jacobs (the podcast formerly known as The Puzzler), now in its third season. 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 Web3 clients, universities, and others, and helped create this year’s mega-puzzle hunt, Midnight Madness. In his other career, 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. Most recently, he produced and arranged the album LIVES OF THE ARTISTS, by Jonathan Levi and Mel Marvin, available everywhere.
Will Shortz
Will Shortz is the crossword editor of The New York Times, the puzzlemaster for NPR’s Weekend Edition, and the founder/director of the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament. He directed ‘Words’ from 2007 until 2019 and holds the distinction of being the only person to have attended every ‘Words’ weekend since its inception in 1982. In August, Will married for the first time to a partner he met through table tennis, which both play every day. Will will challenge anyone to a game of ping-pong in Mohonk’s Game Room on Saturday afternoon during ‘Words’ weekend!
Eric Berlin
Eric Berlin has had dozens of crosswords and other puzzles published in The New York Times, and he is the author of “The Puzzling World of Winston Breen,” a trilogy of puzzle-filled mysteries for kids. He creates live puzzle events for schools, museums, and organizations — among other places, his work has been seen at the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, New York City’s Museum of Mathematics, and the Scripps National Spelling Bee. Eric is the constructor behind Puzzlesnacks (http://www.puzzlesnacks.com), and collections of his puzzles can be found on Amazon.
Juliana Pache
Juliana Pache is a media professional and the creator of Black Crossword. Before launching BlackCrossword.com in 2023, Pache led social strategy at brands and publications such as The FADER and Rolling Stone. Her first book of puzzles “Black Crossword: 100 Mini Puzzles Celebrating the African Diaspora” was published in August 2024 with Amistad/HarperCollins. Her second book of MIDI puzzles was published on June 3rd, 2025. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.
A.J. Jacobs
A.J. Jacobs is an author and podcaster. 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 is the host of the iHeart podcast “The Puzzler with A.J. Jacobs,” with chief puzzle officer Greg Pliska. It is based on his book “The Puzzler,” which contains 20 original puzzles by Greg Pliska. His new book is “The Year of Living Constitutionally.” He has told several Moth stories and given several TED talks that have amassed over 10 million views. Jacobs was the answer to 1 Down in the March 8, 2014, New York Times crossword puzzle.
Barry Joseph
Barry Joseph is a games-based educator, game designer, and founder of the Games For Change Festival. After learning that famed composer & lyricist Stephen Sondheim once considered leaving the world of musical theater for video game design, Barry began research to uncover this wholly original way to use game and puzzle design to understand the mind that transformed musical theater. Barry worked at the American Museum of Natural History and the Girl Scouts of the USA. He is now the founder of Barry Joseph Consulting, dedicated to innovating solutions for learning in a digital age, and the Brooklyn Seltzer Museum. He also teaches Digital Design for Museum-based Learning at New York University, based on his book Dancing with Dinosaurs: A Toolkit for Digital Design in Museums. His latest book is Matching Minds with Sondheim: The Games and Puzzles of the Broadway Legend.
Sue Lorenson
Sue Lorenson earned a BA in Linguistics from Swarthmore College and Ph.D. in Theoretical Phonology from the University of Arizona. Her day job is as Vice Dean for Undergraduate Education in Georgetown University’s College of Arts and Sciences. In this role, she oversees strategy related to the academic lives of undergraduates in the College, including academic advising, undergraduate research, and curricular development. Her side gig is teaching in the Department of Linguistics; last year, she celebrated her 25th year of teaching at Georgetown.
Joel Beckerman
Joel Beckerman is an award-winning composer, producer, arranger and author, as well as the founder of Made Music Studio, a global sonic branding and design studio headquartered in New York City. Beckerman has created, with his team, original scores for over 50 television series and specials, including Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations, The CBS Evening News, CBS This Morning, Entertainment Tonight, ESPN’s 30 for 30 and the Super Bowl on NBC. His work can also be found across many networks, including Discovery, A&E, FX, HBO, and NBC and in the signature sonic identity systems for global giants such as AT&T, IMAX, Hulu, Disney, Showtime, CNBC and dozens of others—as well as experiential works including character development and select scoring for Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Disney theme parks, the score for the AT&T Discovery District public space and tourist destination. Beckerman has collaborated with a wide variety of talent ranging from John Legend, Morgan Freeman, OK Go, will.i.am, to film composers John Williams and the late great James Horner. Beckerman is also the founder of YourMusicYourFuture, a global education campaign for composers, by composers, and a former board member of the Society of Composers and Lyricists.
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