Prolific crossword creator makes puzzle for Spokesman-Review readers

From staff reports

For our Father’s Day puzzle section, we thought it would be nice to get a crossword puzzle created exclusively for our readers.

After a few emails, the name that came to the top was Jeff Chen. He fit our criteria of having Washington roots and a solid resume of published crosswords. Chen has been creating crosswords for 10 years and recently cracked the New York Times Top 10 list for the most crossword puzzles published in the New York Times. The ninth-most published puzzle creator debuted with the NYT in July 2010 and has created 121 puzzles in all, the latest published March 7 of this year.

Chen was asked to make a puzzle that used clues our readers would recognize. He proposed a puzzle using word play associated with our local universities.

Chen is the author of the “Ultraball” series (HarperCollins). He recently released “It’s So Easy Crosswords,” and is currently working on a sequel to Bridge Crosswords, another 52 crosswords all about contract bridge.

In previous careers, he was a mechanical engineer listed on eight U.S. patents, and was involved in the start Acucela Inc., a pharmaceutical company that went public in 2014.

Chen is “an avid rock climber, inconceivably terrible bridge player, and likes ideas, people, and things with nerd cred.” He he has also reached about two-thirds of his lifetime goal of donating 20 gallons of blood. “Not all at once,” he adds.

Chen grew up in the Bay Area but has lived in Seattle for nearly 25 years. He is married with two children.