Today we welcome constructor, teacher, and reader of every clue in a crossword, Kareem Ayas (he/him). Kareem lives in Harlem with his Siberian Husky, Kane.
Kareem! It was such a treat to meet you in person at ACPT and then to be able to chat later over Zoom. Thanks for letting me ask you so many questions! Let’s start with your move to the U.S. — you mentioned that you are Lebanese/Syrian and you came to America to attend NYU’s Tisch Writing program. Will you share more about your decision to study in the U.S. and about the writing you did/do?
It was a playwriting and dramatic writing program. I was living in Saudi Arabia at the time, but I’m from Lebanon and Syria. I applied to several different grad programs, and NYU was one that I was accepted into.
I remember in Syria, we had maybe four channels, and one of them was an American movies channel. In all the movies, the characters were always talking about NYU. Growing up, I always idolized NYU, and I was like, “One day, I’m going to go to that school.” So, when I got in, I went there.
What kind of plays do you write?
Dark and twisted; usually related to things from my culture. They’re often set in war-torn Syria or Lebanon and feature heavy topics like terrorism, abuse, family dysfunction, religion, etc.…
And now you’re a high school English literature teacher. What are some of your favorite topics to teach during the school year?
My favorite thing to teach is “The Stranger” and absurdism. I have read that book on my own and with my students twice a year for the past decade. It’s my favorite thing in the world — talking about the absurdism of our expectations of what life should be. That’s the stuff that I was really engaged with when I was in high school. I wasn’t always reading and engaged as a student, but that pulled me in. Now, I try to teach my students things that I know 16 or 17-year-old-me would have been into.
How did you get involved with crosswords?
I worked at a school in Manhattan in 2018, and during lunch we used to put up the NYT daily on the big screen and solve it together. One day we were all stuck on one clue — it was a 2019 Sam Trabucco puzzle, and the clue was [Bounce]. After literally an hour, it clicked, and so did the theme, and the rush I got was like nothing I’ve ever felt! (I won’t spoiler — you should check out that puzzle, it’s a good one.)
I genuinely don’t remember how I moved from solving to constructing, but I’ve always been into puzzly things. I build “Jeopardy!” boards for my coworkers and students; I make scavenger hunts on my friends’ birthdays. I love wordplay and often include it in my songwriting — it just felt like a natural transition.
I started submitting to the Times, and nine (very deserved) rejections later, my THESAURUS puzzle was accepted. Suddenly that rush was like nothing I’ve ever felt. I’ve been chasing that feeling ever since.
Did you have a mentor?
For the first few years I was getting into crosswords just on my own — figuring out what I was doing by using a lot of trial and error without any help. But after I lucked out with a few acceptances, a handful of people started to enter my life that I owe dearly for their advisership.
Will Eisenberg – He was my editor and mentor at AVCX Lil, and was very patient and generous with his time, despite me repeatedly shooting him dumb questions about clues every day! I think all of my Lil puzzles are very good, and I owe a huge portion of that to Will’s advice.
Universal – David Steinberg and the team at Universal accepted my first themeless puzzle. I consider myself very bad at themelesses, but the Universal team’s detailed and thoughtful feedback on all the rejected ones really helped give me lasting insight into what makes certain entries fresh and spicy.
Adrian Johnson – My good buddy Adrian! Lovely constructor and lovelier person. He is always available to give me feedback on puzzles or provide advice about being in the crossword community. Working with him on Puzzles for Palestine 2 and collaborating with him on other things have been very memorable experiences.
Where are you published?
New York Times, USA Today, AVCX (only Lil, not + or Classic just yet), Wall Street Journal, Universal and Universal Sunday, Apple News+, Puzzmo, LA Times, and Boswords!
What are you thinking about when you sit down to make a puzzle?
I want to make something disruptive; something that hasn’t been done before.
Also, exposing people to my culture and exposing the people of my culture to more crosswords. Equity is very important — so I always try to include references to my identity in my puzzles. This may be something I say in the constructor notes, or it might look like choosing to include BEIRUT in my grids or making themes around my culture. I implore people to do their research and to always ask and question what you see in American media. I lived my whole life in Lebanon and Syria, and now more than ever my countries need to be represented in the right way.
I don’t know of any other Arab constructors — which is odd. We love puzzles too! When it comes to making puzzles, I may come off as overly ambitious, sometimes blindly so, but I have this enormous responsibility to represent my people as best I can in grids that may have the farthest reach.
What do you try to avoid in your crosswords?
I really try to go for cleanliness in grids, and I avoid proper names as much as possible (mostly as a reaction to comments I received from my first few, which were name-heavy, haha).
Also, I recently learned that, for some reason, “__ SOLO” entries really irked someone I know, so they’re pretty much out of my puzzles for good now!
How do you come up with your constructing ideas?
Usually, I begin by thinking of different ways to break traditional crossword rules. How can I make a puzzle with color or empty squares? How can I make a rebus more interesting? How can I include phrases that change direction or turn corners? I find something that is just weird enough, and I work backwards from there.
That’s some fearless construction! Does this boldness translate into other parts of your life?!
Yeah, I think so. When I finished my undergrad, I moved to Spain for two years, then Turkey, then a handful of other countries. I never knew where I was going to end up. Taking risks is scary, but that’s what makes life fun. Safe is boring.
I feel like that directly translates to your crosswords.
Being interesting is the most important thing – I love crosswords because I get to put that element of myself in a place where other people can see it. Also, I’d rather a solver be like, “What the [bleep] is he doing here!?” rather than say, “Oh, what a fun puzzle!”; I would rather make waves. It’s the same with playwriting – I get to be weird, and absurd, and take risks and do things that no one would expect. That’s always more interesting to me.
I love how much I can learn about someone by solving their puzzles. Speaking of … will you please share some of your greatest hits with us?
NYT “SET” Monday Crossword, Jun 10, 2024: That’s the one everyone mentions when they meet me! Weirdly enough, when I submitted it, it was because I had nothing else to send. I thought the theme was only okay and did not think that it would be accepted at all. I’m also very happy to have broken the record for most repeated answers in a puzzle!
Triple-puzzle day! (USA Today, LA Times & Universal), Jan 11, 2025: It was a pretty awesome experience to have three themeless crosswords out in one day — and those were all puzzles I really like!
Puzzles for Palestine Pack, released Jan 2025: Some of my favorite puzzles that I’ve made are in this pack (a 21×21 themed titled “My World” and 13×19 themeless titled “Mothers of Sumud”).
“Narrative Arcs” Puzzle #3 Boswords Winter Wondersolve, Feb 2, 2025: What a great experience working with John and Brad and getting to construct something for a tournament — hopefully the first of many!
Favorite published clue! [Gin or djinn, e.g.] for SPIRIT.
My most recent Sunday NYT puzzle is my favorite puzzle that I’ve made.
Yes! Please tell us more about your Sunday NYT puzzle, Course Correction. It came out the Sunday of ACPT (4/6) and was so good. Do you remember how you came up with the idea?
Not really, I was just mindlessly putting things together and then I had the idea to spin some entries around. It was a 15×15 at first, and the revealer was TURN TABLES. It had four circles with nonsense letters inside of the circles, but they spun and made other real phrases. That was rejected by the Times because the letters inside of those circles had nothing to do with TABLES. Eventually, I applied this idea to class abbreviations. This puzzle came together in pieces. The revealer, SPIN CLASSES, came after — same with the title, Course Correction. Having those pieces fall into place felt like kismet.
What advice would you give to new or aspiring constructors?
I’ve had 50+ crosswords published and accepted so far, but easily over 250 rejections. So, my first piece of advice is: be okay with rejection! It happens more than you might think. Also, that feeling of joy for that ONE acceptance will be ten times as intense as the negative emotions brought on from those TEN rejections.
If you could change something about the crossword landscape, what would it be?
Higher representation for women and people of color — especially Arabs! I don’t know of any other Arab constructors besides myself (if you’re out there, hit me up!).
Also, you know, there are other fun ways to clue ARAB besides as a horse or part of UAE…
Are there any constructors whose crosswords you love to solve? What do you like about their puzzles?
Adam Wagner and Simeon Seigel are my favorites — they always have unique, inspirational and gnarly themes! I also vibe with them because I think their approach is similar to mine — their puzzles break rules! Adam’s “Detours Ahead” puzzle has been the inspiration for so many of my own theme ideas.
Christina Iverson – I’m a huge, huge fan of her work. I think about her 2021 “Pest Control” Sunday puzzle at least once a month!
I love a good Adrian Johnson themeless — maybe since he’s my good friend, I feel like I’m on the same wavelength when solving his work, so it makes me feel good to be able to solve a well-constructed themeless grid in under 45 minutes…
Puzzles from the twisty mind of Chandi Deitmer — I always make sure to do her puzzles, and you should too! They’re really so clever.
Do you have any favorite crossword resources to shout out?
I don’t think I’ve ever used a website more than rhymezone.com (hit me up if you work there, I know some constructors who have been trying to get some RhymeZone merch!).
Adam Aronson’s wordlisted.com has been very helpful for my last few dozen ideas.
And Ingrid software! I was a huge Crossfire guy, but Ingrid is just so intuitive (and the layout is very pretty — the light blue gives me calm when I’m ready to slam my keyboard for getting suggested TBIRD, TSLOT and TBOLT all in the same grid…)
Are there any projects or other work you do in crosswords that you’d like to highlight? Where can we find it?
Puzzles for Palestine 2. Please, please check it out — the puzzles are genuinely so good. Go to the site (https://www.puzzlesforpalestine.com/), donate and follow the steps to receive the pack. We all worked very hard on them and are very proud of the result!
How have crosswords impacted your life?
I mean… I’m being interviewed by DCL to talk about my life because I make puzzles… Who woulda thought?
What might DCL readers be surprised to learn about you?
My rejection rate, my love for musicals, the number of crosswords I thought were garbage but that turned out to be amazing, and how much time I spend on grids. I have a puzzle I’ve been working on for three and a half years — I’m not giving up on it!
What else, let’s see… Let’s get controversial:
I don’t like Taylor Swift, but I do like Nickelback. I absolutely would prefer pineapple on my pizza over pepperoni. A hot dog is a sandwich. I hate SNL and I have run out of cluing angles for it. I can’t stand speed-solving! I am so bad at it, and I don’t find it fun! I know how hard constructors and editors work on puzzles, and I find it weird to spend three minutes on something that someone spent hours and weeks (sometimes months) to make! So, when I solve, no matter what outlet and what day of the week, I always read every single clue.
This also means at ACPT, I was basically the last one in the room, and I’m not ashamed of that.
Ah, I relate so hard to this. I totally have FOMO when it comes to reading clues; I have to read them all. Also, have you ever tried pineapple with pepperoni on pizza (highly recommend)?
Yeah! I love pineapple on pizza; and pineapple with beef or pepperoni is great.
To me, controversy over food is so boring. I mean, everybody has stuff they like. People have these really strong feelings about what other people put into their body. Come on, I eat ketchup with hummus and everyone’s going to judge me for that but, “Who cares!? Let me do what I wanna do.”
As a fellow lover of pineapple on pizza, I appreciate the judgment-free food zone. Okay, to wrap up, I have a handful of rapid-fire questions for you:
Early bird or night owl?
Night owl
Go-to emoji?
Blushy-face
Solving or constructing?
Constructing
Non-fiction or fiction?
Fiction
Best play?
“Waiting for Godot”
Solve a NYT Thursday or Sunday?
Oh [tough question]. It depends on who constructed it!
Famous person, living or not, that you’d most like to meet?
Camus … oh no, wait, Voltaire.
😊 😊 😊 😊 😊 😊 😊 😊 😊 😊 😊 😊
This interview has been edited and condensed.
Jess Rucks is a therapist and crossword constructor. She is happy to combine her love of learning about others with her love of crosswords for DCL’s Constructor Spotlight.
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