Puzzlemakers for the 36th American Crossword Puzzle Tournament

Patrick Berry is a freelance puzzlemaker from Athens, Ga. His work has appeared in the New York Times, Harper's, the Wall Street Journal, the New Yorker, and numerous other publications. He is the author of the definitive book on crossword construction (Crossword Challenges for Dummies) and has created two puzzle-based video games.

Patrick Blindauer is an associate editor for Puzzlewright Press, an imprint of Sterling Publishing. He lives in St. Louis with his wife, Rebecca, and dog-ter, Penny. His most recent obsession is letterboxing.

Kevin G. Der is a software engineer in San Francisco. He tried to construct his first crossword after seeing Wordplay in 2006 and is thrilled to make his ACPT debut seven years later.

Elizabeth C. Gorski is the head of Crossword Nation, which makes original puzzles for mobile devices. Recently she was commissioned to create a crossword for the biggest client of her career -- the U.S.S. Intrepid. When shes not puzzling, Liz enjoys chamber music, tennis, and flamenco dancing.

Lynn Lempels puzzle career started as a fluke in the 1970s in Syracuse, N.Y., when she began making crosswords for a small newspaper, written at a super-easy level, for adult students. Thirty years later, shes still doing it. Lynn lives in Daytona Beach with her husband, a history professor.

Ian Livengood is a crossword editor at Penny Press. He is tied for the fourth-most published constructor in the New York Times since 2011. Ian lives in New York City with his fiance, Katie. In his spare time he enjoys movies, skiing, and soccer.

Brendan Emmett Quigley is a professional puzzlemaker for the American Values Club Crossword, the New York Times, the Visual Thesaurus, and Southwest Airlines, among others. He creates two free crosswords a week for his website, www.brendanemmettquigley.com. Brendan lives in Arlington, Mass., with his wife and daughter.

Mike Shenk is the crossword editor of the Wall Street Journal and one of the three partners in the puzzle-writing company Puzzability. Mike hosts an annual Oscars party for friends with ingenious homemade ballots for predictions.