Who's Who at Westwords
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Since its founding in 2024, Westwords has been exceptionally proud to feature puzzle-makers from all over the west, including Arizona, Colorado, Washington State, and many parts of California. Meet the constructors making puzzles for the 2026 tournament!
Andrea Carla Michaels (co-constructing with Mark Axel)
Andrea Carla Michaels has lived in California for over four decades, the last 33 years in the same rent-controlled San Francisco apartment. She names companies and products for ACME Naming. (Andrea helped name Boswords!) As "Pizza Lady," she distributes food and clothes to her neighbors on the streets. She also enjoys playing Scrabble and watching sad foreign documentaries. A former standup/sitcom writer, Andrea's favorite job remains traveling the world as an unpaid chaperone on the "All New Dating Game," and her favorite puzzle remains her first (in June 2000) for the NY Times.
Byron Walden
Byron Walden is a professor of math and computer science at Santa Clara University. In his 25 years of publishing crosswords in the New York Times, he got away with debuting EX-LAX, VASECTOMY, CONDOM, BETTER THAN SEX, REAR WIPER (oh, wait, that one wasn't actually a breakfast test violation) and perhaps best of all, the stacked entries MALE NUDE, PHONE SEX and SANTA HAT. He has constructed crosswords for quite a few crossword tournaments (most famously, the 2005 ACPT Finals puzzle that was the villain of the movie "Wordplay") and is delighted to be part of Westwords this year.
Mallory Montgomery (co-constructing with Zhou Zhang)
Mallory has lived in a dozen California towns and now calls Seattle home. In her spare time between solving and constructing crossword puzzles, she works as an economist.
Mark Axel (co-constructing with Andrea Carla Michaels)
Mark Axel is an Oakland-based bartender who moved to the West Coast from Cleveland in 2023. When he's not solving or creating crosswords he enjoys karaoke (go-to song: "Everywhere" by Michelle Branch) and rock climbing (most recent accomplishment: V11!). He's thrilled to be constructing alongside some all-time greats for Westwords 2026!
Rebecca Goldstein
Rebecca is a drug hunter, crossword constructor, wife guy, and coffee snob based in Albany, CA. She celebrated her 10-year Bay Area-aversary in March, and still considers herself a New Yorker, now with a strict 50-80°F operating range. Rebecca is one of the founders and directors of Westwords.
Sarah Sinclair
Sarah Sinclair lives in Seattle, WA where she is a Product Manager at Microsoft. Her favorite things about living in the Pacific Northwest are the vibrant barbershop music, puzzle hunt, indie trivia, and theater scenes, though it's a nice bonus when the mountain's out. She also loves crafts of all kinds, especially knitting and sewing, and thinks you can never have too many crossword-patterned outfits. She's so excited to join this spectacular Westwords lineup and hopes everyone has a blast!
Sophia Maymudes
Sophia Maymudes was born, raised, and currently resides in Seattle WA, where she embodies the stereotype of a flannel-wearing software engineer. She spends most of her time learning new board games, sharing her Survivor 50 hot takes, and trying to be funny on Letterboxd. She also writes a monthly crossword for the (ahem) *other* coast in the Provincetown Independent.
Zhou Zhang (co-constructing with Mallory Montgomery)
Zhou Zhang is an economist and mom of three based in Seattle, WA. 95% of the time she can be found a) procrasti-crosswording, b) bribing her kids to do housework, or c) running along Lake Washington.
Tournament Directors and Editors
The Westwords directors are Rebecca Goldstein, Kate Chin Park, Stan Park, and John Lieb. Puzzles are edited by Rebecca and Kate.
Rebecca Goldstein is a scientist and a prolific crossword constructor who was named Constructor of the Year in the 2024 ORCA Awards. She has lived in the Bay Area since 2016.
Kate Chin Park is a puzzles and games editor at the New Yorker. She grew up in Spokane, went to college in San Diego, and after twelve years elsewhere, returned to the west coast in 2016. She lives in Oakland.
Stan Park is a crossword speed-solver, a puzzles enthusiast generally, a Tottenham Hotspur fanatic, and a fervent home chef. He grew up in the Bay Area and currently lives in Oakland.
John Lieb is a director of Boswords (a series of online and in-person crossword events) and a math teacher and coach of football and baseball at Boston's Roxbury Latin School, where he enjoys dressing up for Pi Day.
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