The New York Times to feature Joliet West alumnus’ crossword puzzle on Sunday

Like many people, Jeff Kremer and his wife Heather were staying home a lot in early 2020.

So to alleviate what Jeff called “pandemic boredom,” Heather began working The New York Times crossword puzzles on an app – and piqued Jeff’s interest in them, too, he said.

Soon Jeff wasn’t just solving puzzles, he was creating them. So he sent a few to The New York Times, hoping the newspaper would publish them. A dozen rejections later and Jeff made his goal.

Jeff’s crossword puzzle will be featured in the Nov. 28 edition of The New York Times, and yes, he’s thrilled. Jeff’s heard The New York Times receives about 300 submissions a month, so the process is “pretty competitive,” he said.

Still, Jeff kept at it and stayed positive.

“A lot of it comes down to picking a good theme,” Jeff said. “The Sunday puzzles almost always have themes. Your puzzle can get tossed out pretty quickly if they don’t like the theme. I’d gotten close. They liked certain aspects but not quite enough to say ‘yes.’ That had given me a glimmer of hope.”

Jeff said although one can use software to help with the grids, the puzzles themselves still require the “human touch.” The software may pick foreign words or obscure words instead of words that are “more lively and interesting to regular people,” Jeff said.

So designing a good crossword puzzle requires a lot of thought, although it’s not necessary to be a vocabulary expert, he said.

“It sounds scary, but I think anyone can do it, if they put some creative work into it,” Jeff said.

The fun part is getting to play “puzzle master,” creating the clues that can throw even the best puzzle-solver “for a loop,” he said.

Jeff isn’t planning to abandon his new-found hobby any time soon. He’s still creating puzzles and plans to submit them to other publications, as well as The New York Times. He’s also become involved in some online communities with like-minded enthusiasts.

“So hopefully this isn’t a one and done,” Jeff said.

Jeff is a Shorewood native and graduate of Joliet West High School. He and his wife Heather now live in Chicago with their children Calvin (who actually does have a Hobbes stuffed toy), age 4 and Hazel, 18 months.

His parents, Ron (a former Herald-News reporter) and Jolene, still live in Shorewood.