Ada Nicolle
AVCX+ editor
Ada (she/they) is a crossword constructor based in Toronto, Ontario. She runs the indie crossword venue Luckystreak Xwords+ on Patreon, and is a regular contributor to the USA Today Crossword and Redstone Crosswords. When she’s not constructing puzzles, she can be found performing comedy around Toronto.
Adrian Johnson
2022 Lil AVC X constructor
Adrian (he/him/his) is from Wyoming— a distortion of the space-time continuum that the inner echelons of the U.S. government are trying to convince you is a “state.” Do not trust anything he says, because everyone “from Wyoming” is, in reality, a robot filled with pre-programmed memories and propaganda; the name Wyoming, after all, comes from a Delaware word meaning “conspiracy.” You can try to reach Adrian through technology, which, as a humanoid, he is likely to understand. Click here or here.
Aimee Lucido
AVCX Trivia editor and AVCX Classic constructor
Aimee (she/her/hers) is a long-time crossword maker with publications in most mainstream venues including the AV Classic and the New Yorker. She is a recent inductee into the cult of trivia and is very excited to apply her crossword experience to the trivia format. She writes books for kids and her first two publications, Emmy in the Key of Code and Recipe for Disaster, are available wherever books are sold. Her third book, Words Apart, will be out in winter of 2024.
Brendan Emmett Quigley
AVCX Classic Constructor
BEQ (he/him/his) has written every puzzle you’ve ever done since 1996. When not crossing words, he can be seen making an unholy racket with the Boston Typewriter Orchestra.
Byron Walden
AVCX Classic constructor
Christopher Adams
AVCX+ editor
Christopher (he/him/his) is a former grad student turned townie slash independent puzzlemaker. He recently took over as quizmaster for most of the (very robust) Iowa City quizzing scene.
Claire Muscat
AVCX Cryptic editor
Claire (she/her/hers) is a Software Engineer and puzzle enthusiast based in Chicago, IL. Her puzzles have appeared in a number of mainstream and indie outlets but her heart belongs to cryptics now.
Enrique Henestroza Anguiano
Lil AVC X editor
Enrique (he/him/his) is a computational linguist and data scientist based in Oakland, CA. His crosswords have appeared in most mainstream and indie crossword venues, and you can find more indie crosswords and data science thoughts on his site, Datalexic. He also co-maintains Spread the Word(list), a free data-driven resource for newer constructors.
Francis Heaney
AVCX Cryptic editor
Francis (he/they) is currently the Senior Editor for Union Square & Co.’s imprint Puzzlewright Press, and has had stints at “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” (ancillary writer) and Games magazine (editor-at-large). Their puzzles have appeared in The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, Wired, Time Out, the Wall Street Journal, Al-Jazeera, etc., and in books such as “Drunk Crosswords” (with Brendan Emmett Quigley), “Brain Games for Word Nerds,” and “Sudoku in Space.” Tweets: @fheaney; Insta: @heaneyf.
Karen Lurie
AVCX Classic editor
Karen Lurie (she/her/hers) is a Brooklyn, NY-based comedy and game show writer who dove into crossword construction during the dark pandemic days of 2020. Her puzzles have appeared in most of the mainstream and indie “usual suspect” venues.
Kelsey Dixon
2022 Lil AVC X constructor
A master thief who uses her skills for good, Kelsey (she/her/hers) travels the world foiling V.I.L.E.’s evil plans— with help from savvy sidekicks. Extremely intelligent, stylish, and fashionable, most of her crimes involve spectacular, and often improbable, cases of monument theft. Her other puzzles can be found at crosstina-aquafina.blogspot.com.
Kunal Nabar
2022 Lil AVC X constructor
Kunal (he/him/his) is an engineer who lives in the Bay Area. He started solving crosswords in 2017 and has loved it ever since. He began constructing in early 2020. You can find other puzzles he’s written on his blog. In his spare time Kunal enjoys cooking, running, and exploring California’s outdoor spaces.
Madeline Kaplan
2022 Lil AVC X constructor
Madeline (she/her/hers) is a Lil AVC X contributor. She is also a podcast producer and writer.
Max Carpenter
AVCX+ editor
Max (he/him/his) is a film programmer, crossword constructor, and writer based mostly in New York. He sometimes uploads misfit puzzles to his site and is also terminally online.
May Huang
2022 Lil AVC X constructor
May (she/her/hers) is a Chinese-English literary translator and also works in public relations. She runs Crossworthy, a puzzle blog and free crossword construction platform, with her husband Kevin. Talk to her about Taylor Swift, swing dancing, and Hong Kong!
Paolo Pasco
AVCX Classic constructor
Quiara Vasquez
AVCX Classic and AVCX+ editor
Quiara (pronounced key-AH-rah) (she/her/hers) was a journalist and is now a puzzlemaker (which, if you can believe it, pays better). The guy from The X-Files called her the best interviewer he’d ever talked to. She edits puzzles for AVCX+ and has done grids for Newsday, Boswords, The Atlantic, and (duh) AVCX; she posts weekly puzzles on her site QVXwordz.
Rafael Musa
2022 Lil AVC X constructor
Rafa (he/him/his) loves: crossword puzzles, Taylor Swift, matcha lattes, cats, browsing Zillow, reading investigative journalism. He has a crossword blog, and likes to hang out with other crossword people on Twitter. He grew up in Brazil and lives in San Francisco.
Shannon Rapp
2022 Lil AVC X constructor
Shannon (she/her/hers) is excited to be constructing for Lil AVC X! She makes puzzles for her blog under the name Norah Sharpe and contributes to Crossworld News and Notes. Shannon is a mom of one middle-schooler, servant to one cat, and loves coffee, knitting, and burritos.
Sid Sivakumar
AVCX+ editor
Sid (he/him/his) is an MD/PhD student and puzzlehead based in St. Louis, MO. He edits The Juggernaut Crossword and regularly contributes puzzles to The New York Times. Many of his indie crosswords can be found on his website, Sid’s Grids.
Stella Zawistowski
AVCX Cryptic editor
Stella (she/her/hers) is a top solver of vanilla crosswords, with multiple top-ten finishes at the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, and an evangelist for cryptic crosswords. Follow her on Twitter for a #crypticclueaday and weekly #crypticcluecontest, and visit her site, ToughAsNails.net, for a monthly cryptic mini, cryptic solving tips, and a semimonthly hard themeless vanilla puzzle.
Wyna Liu
AVCX Classic constructor
Wyna Liu (she/her/hers) is an associate puzzle editor at the New York Times and an assistant editor at AVCX Classic. Her puzzles have run in The New Yorker, NYT and AVCX. She makes jewelry and objects that can be found here. IG and Twitter @wynaliu
