OK, crossword puzzle fans. You’re looking for 12 letters. The clue: When she’s not playing Chopin, she’s busy furrowing your brow and making you smile.
Answer: Amanda Rafkin.
Meet USA TODAY’s newest crossword puzzle editor, who takes the reins after a few years assisting outgoing editor Erik Agard.
Rafkin, 35, hails from Los Angeles and will be in charge of overseeing submissions from dozens of puzzle contributors. She says she’ll continue in Agard’s footsteps, seeking out diverse crossword creators and topics.
“We have the good fortune of attracting contributors from different backgrounds with a wide range of cultural references and experiences,” says Rafkin. “Maybe it’s a clue or answer I’ve never heard of, but it’s a part of someone’s life, so we embrace that.”
Rafkin says USA TODAY crossword puzzles have featured answers that include a dance that’s native to Samoa, a dish enjoyed by Colombians and words used by the queer community.
If there are gatekeeping responsibilities in her position, they boil down to ensuring that clues or answers don’t involve people or organizations that can make people feel upset.
That can be a tall order in these polarized times, but Rafkin says simply, “We don’t want to shine a light on people who are doing people dirty.”
Rafkin is a concert pianist with a ‘Chopin’ tattoo testifying to her passion for the romantics
When asked about the road to her puzzle maestro position, Rafkin just laughs. “It’s been a journey,” she says.
Rafkin grew up in South Florida with her sights set on being a concert pianist. Her love for the romantics – Brahms, Liszt, Rachmaninov – is so deep she has a “Chopin” tattoo. About 10 years ago she moved to Los Angeles, and while she continues to perform, she has spent years as a mental health professional.
Games and puzzles have always been a part of Rafkin’s life, she says. Her apartment is filled with board games, vintage and modern. Asked her favorite, she demurs. “That’s impossible to say,” she says. But she’s frank about how one of the all-time classic board games – Monopoly – is not on her go-to list.
“If I want to be stressed about finances and buying real estate, I can just look at my life,” she quips.
About four years ago, Rafkin got curious about what it might take to make her own crossword puzzle. “I found a mentor and discovered that the act of making a crossword is a puzzle in its own right,” she says. “I got hooked. Who doesn’t like making order out of chaos?”
She says the act of making a crossword is akin to starting to assemble a jigsaw puzzle. You start by making the edges, “and then it’s about, how do I fill this in with things that feel good to me.”
Sometimes, filling in that middle comes easily. Other times the process can be laborious and even frustrating. “There are times you’ll get halfway done making one, and realize you’re stuck and have to start all over,” she says.
Part of Rafkin’s job will be to help puzzle creators through those murky passages while also lending guidance as to a puzzle’s tone and theme.
“I’m mainly looking to see that the puzzles submitted are a good fit for USA TODAY, are the clues a good fit, are the answers?” she says.
Constructors will approach her with a theme. Once that is approved, they’ll come up with a grid structure, and after that the clues. Rafkin will suggest edits, but she says it’s important the creators are happy with the end result. “Their name is on it,” she says.
What makes USA TODAY crosswords more approachable for creators and players alike?
A few things distinguish USA TODAY crossword puzzles from those of other major publications, she says.
Those features include not having the difficulty of the puzzles increase as the week goes on, which means someone hopping into a puzzle on a Friday won’t be staring down the toughest crossword of the week.
USA TODAY puzzles also allow for asymmetric grids, “which means the black squares don’t have to have symmetry,” she says. That makes it easier for creators to come up with crosswords without also having to account for symmetry.
Lastly, Rafkin says USA TODAY’s crosswords avoid misdirection, which again can open puzzles up to more people.
An example of that is simply a clue that ends in a question mark, “which suggests that wordplay is afoot,” she says. “We don’t want there to be experiential prerequisites to solve our puzzles. It’s more straightforward.”
When it comes to doing puzzles herself, Rafkin is not an absolutist.
“I think you can get satisfaction without even finishing a crossword,” she says. “It’s that feeling of chipping away that feels great, and maybe you find that one word that busts a section wide open.”
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Rafkin also says she’s “very pro looking things up. I mean, it’s a game, it’s supposed to be fun. And besides, you can learn something.”
While she’s a diehard crossword puzzle aficionado, Rafkin bears no ill-will toward newfangled games such as Wordle. She considers them a gateway drug.
“Maybe someone who thinks they don’t like crosswords gets sucked in by Wordle, and suddenly, they’re curious about doing crosswords,” she says. “The one thing I don’t like to hear is, ‘I’m not smart enough to do crosswords.’ Everyone is.”
The sonorous sound of her piano aside, how does Rafkin genuinely relax? Her answer is as swift as it is predictable.
“It’s more word games, of course!” she says.
