Tracy Bennett

Last updated
Tracy Bennett
Tracy Bennett in 2025 (cropped).jpg
Born
Tracy Pinkham

Maine
OccupationPuzzle editor
Known forEditing Wordle

Tracy Bennett is an editor and puzzle editor. She edits The New York Times Games products Wordle and Strands.

Contents

Early life

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

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]

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] [9] [10] [11] She considers the implications of words related to current news and researches possible offensive alternative uses of words. [4] [1] [10] [9] She has received pushback from players about themed entries. [12] [1] [5]

Bennett began editing Strands, a themed word search game, when the Times launched it in March 2024. [13]

Personal life

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] She was widowed in 2021. [2]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Pair, Jordyn (2022-11-18). "Meet the Ann Arbor woman curating Wordle". MLive Media Group . Retrieved 2023-12-31.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Sumerton, Amy (2022-12-23). "Tracy Bennett". Ann Arbor Observer . Retrieved 2023-12-31.
  3. 1 2 Lindner, Emmett (2023-12-31). "Tracy Bennett Brings Whimsy to Wordle". The New York Times . ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2023-12-31.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Clements, Erin (2023-01-09). "Wordle editor Tracy Bennett reveals what words get the most complaints". Today.com . Retrieved 2023-12-31.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 Klein, Charlotte (2023-12-19). "Inside The New York Times' Big Bet on Games". Vanity Fair . Retrieved 2023-12-31.
  6. 1 2 3 Weiser, Cate; Van Buren, April (14 August 2023). "Stateside Podcast: The Michigan puzzler behind your daily Wordle". Michigan Radio . Retrieved 2023-12-31.
  7. ↑ McKee, Jenn (March 2023). "The Wordle-smith". Hour Detroit . Retrieved 2023-12-31.
  8. 1 2 Amlen, Deb (2019-02-20). "60 Seconds With Tracy Bennett". The New York Times . ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2023-12-31.
  9. 1 2 Orland, Kyle (2022-11-12). "How "Wordle editor" became a real job at The New York Times". Ars Technica . Retrieved 2023-12-31.
  10. 1 2 Peters, Jay (2022-11-07). "Now Wordle has an editor in charge of picking the next answer". The Verge . Retrieved 2023-12-31.
  11. ↑ Pullman, Laura (2023-12-31). "Tracy Bennett — the puzzlemaster with best job in the Wordle". The Sunday Times . ISSN   0140-0460 . Retrieved 2023-12-31.
  12. ↑ O’Leary, Lizzie (2022-11-30). "The New Wordle Editor Is Ruining Wordle". Slate . ISSN   1091-2339 . Retrieved 2023-12-31.
  13. ↑ Levine, Elie (2024-03-04). "Putting a New Twist on a Classic Puzzle". The New York Times. Retrieved 7 April 2024.
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