David Steinberg (crossword editor)

David Steinberg
Born 1996 (age 19–20)
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Occupation Crossword constructor and editor

David Steinberg (born in 1996) is a crossword constructor and editor. At 14, he became the second-youngest person to publish a crossword in The New York Times during Will Shortz's editorship.[1][2][3][4] At 15, he became the youngest published constructor in the Los Angeles Times and the youngest known crossword editor ever for a major newspaper (The Orange County Register).[5] Steinberg is also the founder and director of the Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project.[6]

Early life and education

Steinberg was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and raised in California and Washington. In middle school, he was introduced to the New York Times crossword puzzle by his parents and, after seeing Merl Reagle build a puzzle in the movie Wordplay, began constructing. He attended Turtle Rock Elementary School in Irvine, California, the Lakeside School in Seattle, and Palos Verdes Peninsula High School; he was admitted by every college he applied to, including Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, and attends Stanford University.

Puzzle career

Steinberg's first crossword publication was in The New York Times on June 16, 2011. Since then he has published a total of 56 puzzles in The New York Times and, together with those published in other markets (including the New York Times crossword app, the Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Newsday, The Orange County Register, Fireball Crosswords, Daily Celebrity Crossword, the American Values Club Crossword, BuzzFeed, 10-4 Magazine, and The Jerusalem Post) and books, more than 300 total. One of his puzzles was selected for Twenty Under Thirty, and another appeared in The American Red Crossword Book.

In June 2012 he founded the Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project, a collaborative effort to build a digitized, fully analyzable database of New York Times crossword puzzles published before Will Shortz became editor. Steinberg directs the project, which was an outgrowth of a project he conducted for a science research course while a freshman in high school.

An e-book with 25 crosswords by Steinberg, Chromatics, was published in September 2012. Two months later, he was made crossword editor of The Orange County Register's 24 weekly associated newspapers. This puzzle feature expanded into the Riverside County Press-Enterprise and the now-defunct Los Angeles Register associated newspapers.

In December 2012, Steinberg was named Person of the Year on XWord Info, which recognizes "remarkable contributors to crosswords."[7]

In June 2013, Steinberg collaborated with veteran New York Times constructor Bernice Gordon on a puzzle that was historic because of their 83-year age difference. At 99, Gordon was the oldest currently publishing New York Times crossword constructor; at 16, Steinberg was the youngest.[8]

In August 2013, the Davidson Institute for Talent Development announced its 2013 Davidson Fellows Scholarship recipients, and Steinberg was awarded a $25,000 scholarship in the "Outside the Box" category for his work on the Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project.[9]

In 2013, Steinberg was the most prolific New York Times constructor, published a total of 15 times that year.[10]

In February 2014, one of Steinberg's puzzles was the Margaret Award winner for Simon & Schuster's Mega 14 Crosswords.

In May 2014, Steinberg won First Place in the Quill and Scroll 2014 International Writing and Photo Contest – Blogging Competition for his Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project blog.

In January 2015, another of Steinberg's puzzles was the Margaret Award winner for Simon & Schuster's Mega 15 Crosswords.

In March 2015, he became the youngest person ever to win the C Division championship at the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament.[11]

In June 2015, Steinberg gave a talk at ideacity 2015, a TED-like conference in Toronto, Canada, and was an invited panelist at the Davidson Young Scholars Summit in Reno, where he spoke about the Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project.

Juicy Crosswords, a book containing crosswords Steinberg edited for The Orange County Register, was published by Sterling Publishing in 2016.

References

  1. ↑ Amlen, Deb. "Thursday: Let Off Some Steam". Wordplay: The Crossword Blog of The New York Times. Retrieved 11 April 2013.
  2. ↑ Ratliff, Pat (30 June 2011). "Edmonds Puzzler Receives New York Times Honor". Edmonds Beacon.
  3. ↑ O'Harran, Kristi (1 August 2011). "Edmonds Teen Puzzles New York Times Readers with His Crossword Clues". The Herald. Retrieved 11 April 2013.
  4. ↑ Hahn, Elisa. "Edmonds Teen Builds Crossword Puzzles for New York Times". 2 August 2011. KING5.com. Retrieved 11 April 2013.
  5. ↑ Steinberg, David. "Want to submit a puzzle? Here are the guidelines". 4 December 2012. The Orange County Register. Retrieved 11 April 2013.
  6. ↑ Basheda, Lori (11 October 2012). "Teen Crossword Whiz Helps New York Times". The Orange County Register. Retrieved 11 April 2013.
  7. ↑ Horne, Jim. "Notable Puzzles of 2012". 31 December 2012. XWord Info. Retrieved 11 April 2013.
  8. ↑ Smith, Sarah. "Puzzling collaboration has Phila. connection". 26 June 2013. Philadelphia Inquirer. Retrieved 29 June 2013.
  9. ↑ Davidson Institute for Talent Development. "Talented Youth Embrace Challenge to Excel: 20 Students Named 2013 Davidson Fellows and Receive $50,000, $25,000 and $10,000 Scholarships". Retrieved 28 August 2013.
  10. ↑ "Authors by year". XWord Info. Retrieved 9 August 2014.
  11. ↑ http://www.crosswordtournament.com/2015/standings/divc.htm

External links

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