Christina Iverson author page

Christina Iverson, of Ames, Iowa, is an associate puzzle editor at The New York Times. Katie Hale, of London, England, is an assistant crossword editor for The L.A. Times.

This is their fourth Sunday collaboration for the paper. As mothers of young kids, they often draw themes from real life — this puzzle was inspired by a congested toddler.

Joel Fagliano and Christina Iverson are puzzle editors for The Times. Joel lives in Philadelphia, Christina in Ames, Iowa. They both have young kids and a fondness for "dumb jokes," as Joel puts it.

Christina writes, "We were in the middle of a brainstorm for a totally different Sunday puzzle when we'd hit a wall and Joel messaged me with this theme idea. Every step was collaborative, with a lot of back and forth in DMs, shared documents, and conversations over Google Meet."

Christina Iverson, of Ames, Iowa, is an assistant puzzle editor for The Times. She reviews crossword submissions and helps edit the accepted ones for publication. This puzzle started as an 11 x 11-square grid in which every clue was an emoji. When that didn't work out, she revised and expanded her idea into what you see here.

Christina says, "I had hoped to convince someone to draw the pictures for me, but had no luck, so I drew them all myself."

Christina Iverson, of Ames, Iowa, is an assistant crossword editor for The New York Times. Sam Donaldson is a law professor at Georgia State University. They met at last year's American Crossword Puzzle Tournament and started brainstorming theme ideas.

This one started as a Thursday puzzle and grew into a Sunday when they had too many ideas to fit into a 15 x 15-square grid.

Scott Hogan is making his New York Times debut with this puzzle, after many submissions. He is a patent attorney from Midland, Mich. Christina Iverson is a crossword constructor and editor from Ames, Iowa. They met through the Cruciverb Facebook page, a forum for crossword constructors.

Scott says he takes inspiration from the lyric of "Movin' On Up," the theme song from "The Jeffersons" — "It took a whole lotta tryin', just to get up that hill.'"

Christina Iverson, of Ames, Iowa, is the assistant crossword editor for The Los Angeles Times. Katie Hale is a stay-at-home mom in London, England.

The idea for this puzzle started with Katie. She had a few minutes to kill while waiting for an online course to start. As she stared at a copy of "The Great Gatsby," the phrase THROW A FITZGERALD popped into her head. She laughed … and started adding syllables to other authors' names. Some of the results are shown here. This is Christina's and Katie's third Sunday collaboration for The Times.

Christina Iverson is a crossword constructor in Ames, Iowa. Katie Hale is a stay-at-home mom in London, England. They met online two years ago. This is their 11th and fourth Times puzzles, respectively, and their second Sunday collaboration.

They say that for a complex theme and tricky construction, as here, "It's helpful to bounce ideas back and forth … and nice to have a partner to motivate you to get it right."

Christina Iverson, of Ames, Iowa, is a crossword constructor with two young children. She has been making puzzles for The Times since 2019. This is her fourth Sunday and 10th crossword overall for the paper.

Christina says she aims to make puzzles that are fun and accessible. "I try my hardest to stay away from obscure language — and squeeze in dad jokes whenever I can."

Christina Iverson, of Ames, Iowa, is a stay-at-home mom with two young kids. Jeff Chen is a writer and professional crossword constructor in Seattle. This puzzle's theme started with the vague concept of moving pieces and morphed from dominoes to magnets and finally to jigsaws ("all interests of my son," Christina says).

This is the pair's second Sunday collaboration.