Tracy Bennett
Tracy Bennett | |
|---|---|
| File:Tracy Bennett in 2025 (cropped).jpg | |
| Born | Tracy Pinkham |
| Occupation | Puzzle editor |
| Known for | Editing Wordle |
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Tracy Bennett (née Pinkham) is an editor and puzzle editor. She edits The New York Times Games products Wordle and Strands.
Early life
[edit | edit source]Bennett was born Tracy Pinkham and grew up in Maine.[1][2] Her parents were both in the Navy when her older sister, Cinda, was born, and later divorced.[2] She and her sister attended free schools.[2]
According to her family, Bennett began solving jigsaw puzzles before she could talk.[3] She had an early interest in crossword puzzles.[4] She attended the University of Southern Maine as a theater major, then transferred to the University of Michigan and changed her major to English literature, graduating in 1989.[2]
Career
[edit | edit source]Bennett worked for thirty years for Mathematical Reviews, first as a copy editor and then as the copy editing department manager.[5][1][6]
In 2010 she won a crossword puzzle contest at The Ann Arbor News and soon became interested in puzzle construction after attending the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament.[6][7] Her first commissioned crossword puzzle was published by Knitty.[3][8] She sold several puzzles in 2013, including her first to The New York Times.[1][6][8] In 2017 she cofounded a website offering crossword puzzles created by women and nonbinary people and began editing crosswords.[1]
Bennett became an associate puzzle editor for The New York Times in 2020.[4][1] In 2022 she became the paper's Wordle editor.[5][4] She also edits the paper's crossword puzzles and creates and edits crosswords for other publications.[4][1] As of April 2025, she has created 7 total crosswords for New York Times, one being a variety puzzle, and one being a puzzle made in collaboration with Victor Schmitt. Her debut puzzle for the Times was published on July 21, 2013, and her latest puzzle was published on April 20, 2025.[9]
She made adjustments to Wordle, which was a new acquisition by the Times from its creator. She reorganizes a set of randomly-chosen words for lexical variety and level-of-difficulty throughout a week's puzzles, and avoids words with variant spellings. On one occasion, she experimented with a themed entry on Thanksgiving Day.[5][1][10][11][12] She considers the implications of words related to current news and researches possible offensive alternative uses of words.[4][1][11][10] She has received pushback from players about themed entries.[13][1][5]
Bennett began editing Strands, a themed word search game, when the Times launched it in March 2024.[14]
Personal life
[edit | edit source]Bennett lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where she works from home.[5][4] In 2002 she married George Bennett, with whom she has a son.[1][2] George Bennett died in 2021.[2]
References
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- ^ https://www.xwordinfo.com/Thumbs/?author=Tracy+Bennett
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