Indiana University alumnus and New York Times puzzle editor Will Shortz is returning to Bloomington this week for the National Puzzlers’ League convention.
The National Puzzlers’ League holds annual conventions nationwide and has been as close as Indianapolis; this is the first year it will be in Bloomington. The convention is Thursday through Sunday at the Indiana Memorial Union and Lilly Library on campus.
Shortz, a Crawfordsville, Indiana, native, designed his own major at IU and earned a degree in enigmatology, the study of puzzles. He has been Puzzlemaster for NPR’s “Weekend Edition Sunday,” editor of Games magazine, director of the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament and crossword editor for the New York Times since 1993.
He has also served as the National Puzzlers’ League program director since 1976.
“I think solving puzzles is actually good for your mind,” he said. “You work out your body to keep it in good physical shape by exercise, and the same thing works for using your mind. There are lots of ways to use your mind, you could learn a language, you can read, and those things are great, but puzzles are a fun way to use your brain, and so I think it makes you a better person to solve puzzles.”
Convention participants – around 220 have registered so far – will have the opportunity to solve various puzzles, including rare and unusual mechanical puzzles from IU’s Jerry Slocum Collection of more than 30,000 puzzles that he donated to the university. Slocum and his son will be present at the Lilly Library Activity Room, where the puzzles will be available, to answer questions.
“The puzzles and games are just so much fun,” Shortz said. “It's also people who pushed the envelope with new ideas for puzzles and games. I'm presenting a couple of them myself this weekend, and the convention is open to people to drop in, especially on Thursday and Friday evenings, starting at 8 o'clock, anyone is welcome to come, and there's no cost. It's a very welcoming group.”
National Puzzlers’ League members vote two years in advance for the convention location. Shortz said the main selling point for holding the convention in Bloomington was the Lilly Library, where various puzzles and exhibits will be available to view.
Shortz said he’s excited to come back to IU and grateful for his IU education.
“I was especially lucky to go to IU because of the individualized major program,” he said. “There are very few other places that I could have gotten a degree in enigmatology, and that was the starting point for my career at Games magazine, and now The New York Times.”
