This month, we talk with physicist, literature lover, and constructor Emma Oxford (she/her). Emma is from the D.C. area and currently lives in ERIE, Pennsylvania (which begs the question: Did she move there just for the letters?).
Emma! Thanks for letting us feature you in our constructor spotlight. You’re the creator of Ariadne’s Crossword Library. Can you tell us more about that?
Yes! Please go check out Ariadne’s Crossword Library (ACL), a monthly crossword contest featuring literature-themed puzzles constructed by woman-identifying constructors. Ten of the puzzles up there right now are by me, but I’m excited to be publishing more puzzles by guest constructors this year.
Each month, I give a book to a randomly selected solver who submits the correct meta answer. Sometimes the book relates to the puzzle, sometimes I mix it up. Occasionally, I’m inspired by incorrect submissions – for example, in a previous puzzle, the correct answer was “Ulysses,” but many people submitted “The Book Thief,” so I gave away “The Book Thief.”
Where did the name Ariadne come from?
I wanted the project to have an accessible acronym, so I that was a consideration in coming up with the name. Also, Ariadne is the sister of the Minotaur – she helped Theseus get through the maze on Crete. She’s associated with mazes and labyrinths, which feels appropriate for a meta crossword site.
What was your goal in starting ACL?
One motivation was to have 12 woman-constructed meta puzzles a year reviewed on Diary of a Crossword Fiend. Before I started the site, almost all the reviewed metas were made by men. I’d been solving meta crosswords regularly for several years and noticed this startling gender imbalance in metas and contest crosswords. (There’s a broader lack of diversity among constructors in that space.) I wanted to provide a forum where more constructors could create metas and have them edited – editors really do make puzzles better.
It has also been nice to provide a space where constructors who are new to making metas can receive mentorship. I didn’t initially anticipate the mentorship aspect of ACL, however it has become a large part of it. It feels like something I can provide that other outlets can’t, and I hope that there’s some value added there.
What do you enjoy about metas?
As a solver, I like the extra challenge – it adds another layer to the puzzle-solving experience compared to a standard crossword. As a constructor, there’s this satisfying payoff when solvers can crack my meta answer. I think, like a lot of people – maybe especially those who are really into crosswords – I often feel like I’m not quite on the same wavelength as the people I’m talking to in my daily life. There is something really satisfying about bringing people onto your wavelength when you make a meta that they can solve.
You construct regular crosswords as well. Will you share your crossword origin story with us?
I always get the timelines mixed up, so don’t quote me exactly on the order of things here, but at some point in 2018 or 2019 two things happened: 1) a group of crossword constructors sent an open letter to the NYT editors about the truly appalling gender gap in published crossword constructors and 2) Evan Birnholz, whose puzzles I was regularly solving, wrote about similar issues in his WaPo blog.
At the time, I was getting my PhD in physics and was primed to be irritated that my preferred hobby suffered from the same deficiency as my chosen profession. But it also occurred to me that, even though I couldn’t solve this problem, I might at least be able to help shift the balance. So, I started constructing crosswords. And it turns out I liked it!
My first puzzle was published by The Inkubator in April 2020, and my first newspaper crossword was published by Universal in August 2020.
Based on those dates, some people assume I picked this up as a “pandemic hobby.” I did not. I know it sounds minor, but I care about having my story accurately represented.
No judgment here – I feel the same way. I dislike it when people assume that’s why I started constructing. To be clear, I think it’s wonderful that people took up constructing during the pandemic. It’s a great creative outlet for a difficult time! But for me, it’s about accurately reflecting my experience – the pandemic actually reduced my free time rather than increasing it.
Where are you published?
The Inkubator (RIP), Universal, USA Today, WSJ (my first and only WSJ puzzle was published on Jan. 6, 2021… oof), LA Times, Simon & Schuster Mega series, Fireball, Apple News+, AVCX. The only major publication I haven’t appeared in (I think!) is the NYT, which is a bit ironic considering it was the gender gap in NYT constructors that started me on this path in the first place. You can also find more of my work on my Crosshare page.
Any crossword resources to shout out?
I just learned about the Crossword PDF Editor from Quiara Vasquez – thanks Quiara – game changer!
For constructing and cluing, spread the word(list) has made my puzzles so much cleaner. Adam Aaronson’s Wordlisted is great for coming up with themes. And don’t sleep on Open Source Shakespeare – need to search literally everything Shakespeare ever wrote because your grid has a weird word that would be improved by a creative cluing angle? Open Source Shakespeare to the rescue!
Clearly, you’re a big reader – any hot takes on popular books?
I really dislike Jane Eyre. People talk about how great it is and how wonderful Mr. Rochester is, and I’m like… did we read the same book?! This is the wife-locked-in-the-attic book! I don’t understand how this is a beloved feminist classic. By modern standards, it does not seem that feminist – and people seem to forget huge chunks of the book that are inconvenient to take into consideration.
Noted! I’ve never read Jane Eyre, and now I’m not sad about that. Any other hobbies?
I cross stitch a lot (I don’t know why all my hobbies start with “cross”). I also work full-time, which really gets in the way of all the crosswords I want to be constructing – and into my progress on the as yet entirely theoretical novel I’m sure I’m famous for in some parallel universe.
I currently work as a patent specialist at an intellectual property law firm. Before that, I was a patent examiner with the US Patent & Trademark Office. Before that I was in grad school earning a PhD in physics. Before that I was a librarian. It sounds like a winding path, but I promise it all made sense at the time.
Wait – what is a physicist doing in a law firm?
Patent work requires a technical background. If you want to be a patent practitioner or examiner, you must have at least an undergraduate degree in a science. There’s a pipeline there, especially for people who don’t want to go into academia. It’s a career adjacent to academic research, but you’re not working in a lab. Appealingly, there is still a fair amount of problem-solving and intellectual thinking involved.
Do crosswords engage a different part of your brain?
Yes, it’s a different part of your brain – a different skill set. I spend a lot of time thinking about other people’s ideas and inventions, so it’s nice to have something where I have creative control. I think it scratches that creative itch for me.
How do you come up with your constructing ideas?
I tend to work much better if given some constraints. “Pick any theme in the universe” is overwhelming. That’s why, when I started ACL, I limited the themes to ones with a literature- or reading-related meta answer. “Pick a theme within literature and reading” is a much less daunting starting point.
For other venues, I start by giving myself some constraints, even if they’re arbitrary ones, and then just play in that sandbox for a while to see if I can build an interesting castle.
Themed or themeless?
Themed. I’ve tried to make themeless crosswords, and it just doesn’t work for me (see note above about needing constraints). Themeless crosswords seem overwhelmingly open-ended. There are other constructors doing themeless crosswords much better than I ever could.
In my puzzles, I do make a conscious effort to keep the solving experience in mind and to make puzzles with interesting themes and strong fill – that said: If you’re going to be upset about ERIE appearing over-much in my puzzles… it’s not crosswordese if you live there!
Share some of your greatest hits with us!
I really love the contest crossword I co-constructed with Will Pfadenhauer for Fireball. I came up with the meta and the theme entries for that one (I got extremely lucky with how some of those worked out – the theme barely fought with me at all), and Will put together the grid. I’m also very proud of the four mini-meta series I have over on my Crosshare blog. I have 50 puzzles each in the CrossWordle, Off the Grid, Before & After, and Odd One Out series.
Can you talk more about those puzzle formats?
Someone else came up with CrossWordle, which uses Wordle-based color hints to guide solvers toward a single correct answer.
Off The Grid looks like a 5×5, but it’s really a 6×5 – some entries are missing a letter, and those missing letters form the final answer.
Before and After involves two entries in the grid that don’t quite match their clues. One is missing a word that goes before it, and one is missing a word that goes after it (i.e., time CARD and FACE time, where CARD and FACE are in the grid, clued as FaceTime and Timecard, so the missing answer is “time”).
Odd One Out presents a set of three to four related items (though I went up to six at the end). I would include all except one of those items in the grid or in the clues. For example, if I did earth, air, water, and fire – maybe WATER is in the grid, “earth” and “air” are in the clues somewhere, and “fire” is missing – so the answer is “fire.”
I’m not sure if I’ll try to come up with another series, or if I’ll take a break so I can focus on ACL and getting back to constructing more standard full-sized puzzles.
Are there any constructors you’ll go out of your way to solve?
There are a ton of constructors on Crosshare publishing great puzzles. Two I’m always excited to see new puzzles from are @girlcow and @acommonrose. They both publish super clever crosswords with clues that I often wish I had thought of writing.
Any advice that’s stuck with you?
“I’ve never had a solver complain that a puzzle had too many three-letter words.” –Peter Gordon.
I’m not sure Peter was intending to give this as advice, per se, but I often keep this in mind and interpret it as: Focus on what actually matters. Not all “best practices” improve a puzzle in meaningful ways, especially as related to solver experience.
What’s something that readers would be surprised to learn about you?
I’ve submitted 46 puzzles to the NYT without a single acceptance. To be fair, some of those were early puzzles that were less polished. But still, it’s a bit ironic, given how I got started!
Lastly – any pets?
I have two cats, Esmerelda and Sidewinder (my husband named him). In Erie, there are a lot of stray cats, so when we tell people we went to a shelter and adopted Sidewinder, people are like, “On purpose?!” Esmerelda, of course, hates him – and all he wants is to be her friend. He’s more overtly social. Esmerelda, however, prefers to hang out near you and pretend it’s just a coincidence.
Rapid-Fire Round:
Constructing or solving?
Constructing
Go-to emoji?
😂
Favorite food?
Smooth peanut butter
Favorite book(s)?
“The Night Circus” by Erin Morgenstern is my all-time favorite. I also love any Discworld book by Terry Pratchett, and anything written by Douglas Adams, especially “Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency” and “So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish.”
Three words your friends would use to describe you.
Reliable, funny, meticulous
😂 😂 😂 😂 😂 😂 😂 😂 😂 😂 😂 😂 😂 😂 😂 😂
This interview has been edited and condensed.
Jess Rucks is a crossword constructor and play therapist. She loves combining her curiosity about people with her passion for crosswords in DCL’s Constructor Spotlight.