What’s Black and White All Over? It’s the Crossword Mama.
An interview with Anna Shechtman’s ambitious, wide-ranging missive Riddles of the Sphinx: Inheriting the Feminist History of the Crossword Puzzle.
Did you know that there’s a secret feminist history of the crossword puzzle? I didn’t, until I read Anna Shechtman’s ambitious, wide-ranging missive Riddles of the Sphinx: Inheriting the Feminist History of the Crossword Puzzle in which she recounts her own personal journey with crosswords, publishing her first in The New York Times where she still contributes puzzles today; how that intersected with her eating disorder as a teen; and the early contributions women made to the industry, back when crosswords were considered trivial brain rot, like all other subcultures associated with women, like romance novels and boy bands. Like last year’s Barbie, at one point crosswords were attributed to a rise in divorce, with wives and mothers eschewing their homely duties to solve puzzles. Crossword mamas, indeed!
Anna was gracious enough to answer some questions about Riddles of the Sphinx, which takes its title from the Laura Mulvey—she of the popularization of the term “male gaze”—film of the same name.
Please find our email interview below.
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