TRAVERSE CITY — Kelly Richardson wears a puzzled look like the Cheshire Cat wears a smile, but there’s no disguising her enigmatic cleverness when she puts pencil to puzzle.
A person of few words, and then a few more words, and a few more, the northern Michigan freelance journalist creatively uses her words to build blocks that are precisely 15 letters wide and as many letters deep; unless, of course, she builds a crossword puzzle — 21 letters wide and 21 letters from top to bottom.
What’s not puzzling about this wordsmith architect is her effervescent smile and omnipresent sense for outdoor adventure — she’s a runner and stand-up paddleboarder — who in recent months has constructed brain-teasing crossword puzzles that have been published by the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, the Wall Street Journal and a number of online sites.
An advocate for exercising both mind and muscle, Richardson teaches a five-session class in “The Art of Crossword Construction” at Northwestern Michigan College Extended Education and Training, Feb. 4-18.
“Crossword construction feels different than solving,” said Richardson. “When you solve, there’s one right answer, but when you construct, there are an almost infinite number of ways you can make any given puzzle. There’s no one right answer. It’s a blend of problem solving, voice, and creativity, and it lights up parts of my brain I don’t use otherwise.
“Beyond the process of construction, what I love most about crosswords are all the levels of connection. There’s the literal, interlocking connection between the words in the grid. There’s the very personal feeling of connection when a clue or entry evokes a memory. There’s the direct connection between me as the constructor and each individual solver, as a clue I write leads them to the answer. We’re communicating across time and distance via the page. There’s the connection among a community of solvers in the comments sections of the crossword blogs, and then there’s this inter-generational magic that happens when people of different ages solve together.
“One of my happiest memories as a constructor is seeing my young nephew lean over my sister while she solved one of my puzzles, point to a clue about video games, and say the answer,” she said. “A good puzzle spans the human experience, in all its beautiful detail, and we each have something to contribute.”
The regular contributor to the Traverse City Record-Eagle recalled the morning her crossword puzzle first appeared in the New York Times – July 16, 2024.
Pulling her right hand to rest just above her heart, she talked softly about how that day began.
“The best moment of that day was right at the beginning – my husband wakes up earlier than I do – and he woke up super early and went to the Village Market to pick up three copies of the paper for when I woke up,” she said. “And when I went into our kitchen he had all three copies lying out on our kitchen counter — I think there might have been some celebratory donuts, too – and that just felt real good, he knew it was a special day for me.”
Pandemic puzzles
When COVID suffocated the world, Richardson found a breath of fresh air in picking apart a daily crossword puzzle.
“I was a very occasional solver in college, then didn’t solve at all for close to 20 years,” said Richardson. “I became more interested in crosswords during the pandemic, when I had a lot of free time, and began solving the (New York) Times Sundays that get printed in the Record-Eagle.”
Those puzzles solved the next logical step for Richardson — at least to her — was to construct her own crossword puzzle.
“Pretty quickly after I started solving the (New York) Times Sundays in 2020, I tried to learn how to create puzzles,” she said. “I used to doodle small grids in college when things were slow at the coffee shop where I worked, and I remembered enjoying that, so I thought I should try to learn. But I gave up almost immediately — it’s a very steep learning curve without someone to show you what to do.
“Then in the fall of 2022, a Jeopardy contestant — Sam Buttrey — talked about creating crossword puzzles in his contestant anecdote, and I said to my husband (Jeff) that we should really try to learn how to do it. (Jeff) learned a bit through YouTube, and he taught me the basics. Once I made my first puzzle, I was hooked.”
Richardson began submitting her puzzles to various publications in January 2023, “got several rejections,” but remained undaunted. She said she “learned more” and then debuted in the (Los Angeles) Times in May 2023, with a puzzle that was a collaboration with Los Angeles Times assistant editor Katie Hale.
“My husband didn’t get addicted the way I did, but he is an amazing brainstorming partner for me when I’m creating a theme,” she said. “I’ll also usually ask him to pick his favorite movies, or albums, when I need to write a clue for an actor or musician.”
Richardson also has created puzzles for Universal (which syndicates in papers globally), Defector, Apple News+, and Crossword Flow. She estimates she’s constructed 20 to 25 puzzles that have been published.
Many consider the New York Times the “Cadillac” of crossword puzzle publishers. Sunday puzzles, she said, generally contain about 140 words, while weekday puzzles generally contain about 76 to 78 words.
Her largest puzzle contained 144 words for the LA Times Sunday edition, which Richardson co-constructed with Amanda Cook.
“From a crossword constructor standpoint, the New York Times pays the most and receives the most submissions,” she said. “Last I heard, they receive more than 200 submissions a week, many from very experienced constructors and they only run seven puzzles each week, so it’s quite competitive to get an acceptance.
“But there are many excellent crosswords out there, and I think the variance between them is less about quality and more about voice. Each publication has a different approach to the puzzle. I find the LA Times puzzle very enjoyable, plus it’s free, and Patti Varol, the main editor, will often run a wacky or silly puzzle which makes me laugh.
“Defector’s puzzle feels like hanging out with friends — their editors are not afraid of niche’ sports and pop culture references, so they are really fun to solve. The editors at Apple News+ appreciate elegance in the grid, which is something I highly value as both a constructor and solver. I would say the NY Times is the most evergreen in its editorial voice.”
Always active
Richardson enjoys traveling, “anything active and outdoors,” and “the arts, sports, reading, writing, board games, and pub trivia.”
After attending the University of Michigan to complete her undergrad work, and then New York University for grad school, Richardson worked for nonprofit management in New York before she and her husband moved back to northern Michigan and to where he grew up.
She reached out to the Record-Eagle to see if they’d be interested in publishing her occasional columns about being “New in Town.”
“My first column ran in the Record-Eagle in February, 2021,” she said. “I pitched it as a column from the perspective of someone new to northern Michigan, and I’m still writing it even though I’ve now been living here for five years. I’ll keep writing the column as long as they let me. I love living in northern Michigan, and I love documenting what I find so special about this place.”
Kept busy doing one thing or another, Richardson said family has played a crucial role in all she does – especially when she constructs crossword puzzles.
“From a crossword lens, my husband is my best test solver,” she said, “with my mom a close second. My dad, sisters, brothers, nieces and nephews will solve the occasional puzzle, and I am lucky to have many wonderful in-laws, quite a few of whom are also regular solvers.”
One puzzle she created remains extra special to both her and Jeff.
“I gave my husband a personalized puzzle for his birthday, which is still his favorite puzzle to date,” she said. “I also recently began doing personalized puzzle commissions through Etsy, and I find so much joy in working on them. I work very closely with the clients to craft the entries and the clues, the result is a love letter from the client to the solver in the form of a puzzle.
“Several clients have written to me after giving the gift puzzle, to share how much it meant to the solver. I feel so honored to contribute to that moment of connection between them.”
While Richardson still enjoys solving crossword puzzles, she feels a special sense of accomplishment in giving “voice” to them.
“Just like when you’re writing an article, there’s a voice that you’re using as a journalist (when you’re constructing a puzzle),” she said. “You’re deciding what makes the story interesting with the words you are choosing – how you’re conveying emotion, how you’re evoking imagery – and the way we do it is with choosing what entries will go into the puzzle and how we’ll write the clues.
“There’s a mathematical element to all of this and to me, it’s very analytical. I think you learn a lot when you learn how to construct, which is something I talk about in the class – learning to construct will make you better solvers.”
The “voice” she used in creating her puzzle for the New York Times centered around her fondness for tea.
“I was trying to go very classic with this one, but also do something with what I enjoy a lot, and that was tea,” she said. “I really like tea, so that was kind of my inspiration for this puzzle, and so there’s a kind of mix of the very classic tea words in this cup here. At least in my heart, that’s what it represents.
“I started creating this one as a Sunday puzzle, so originally it was going to be 21 by 21 (letters). The Times wrote back and said ‘we like a lot about his puzzle, but do you think you could make it smaller?’ So I said, ‘great,’ and they were right, because now it’s a much stronger puzzle (being 15 by 15 letters).”