Matt Gaffney has been a professional crossword puzzle writer for 25 years. His puzzles have appeared in Games magazine, the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, Newsday, Slate, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, and The Week, as well as on his own website, https://xwordcontest.com/. He's written many books of crossword puzzles, four books of variety puzzles, and the 2006 narrative book Gridlock: Crossword Puzzles and the Mad Geniuses Who Create Them (Running Press). Hes also the author of the The Complete Idiots Guide to Crossword Puzzles & Word Games (Alpha Books). Gaffney lives in Staunton, VA.