Natan Last, The New Yorker Crossword Contributor, discusses his new book, Across the Universe, in conversation with writer Stefan Fatsis

This event has passed

Calling all Crossword, Spelling Bee, and Wordle Fans!

If you are ever a little nosey and glance at the phone screen of the person sitting next to you on the train, or in a café, or in line at a store, there is a pretty good chance that you will see them playing Wordle, Spelling Bee, Connections, or solving the NYT Mini Crossword. We live in the time of game mania, with crosswords being the ultimate champion. After a huge boom in popularity during the Covid-19 lockdown, 36 million Americans now solve crosswords once a week or more, and nearly 23 million solve them daily. Yet, as longtime New Yorker crossword contributor Natan Last will tell you, the seemingly apolitical puzzle has never been more controversial or more interesting.

In ACROSS THE UNIVERSE, Natan demonstrates how the puzzle and its most popular makers like the New York Times — still the gold standard for word games — have in recent years been challenged for the way they prioritize certain cultures and perspectives as either the norm or obscure. At the same time, the crossword has never been more democratic. A larger, younger, more tech-savvy, and solidaristic group of people have fallen in love with puzzle solving, ushering in a more inclusive rise to the kinds of people constructing them, challenging the very idea of them and, in fact, what “normal” actually is.

Natan was born deaf in his left ear and learned how to lip read to piece together words or parts of sentences he might have missed in conversation which was where his love for words and language began. He soon started solving crosswords in the back of class, moving on quickly to writing them himself. At 16, he got a Sunday puzzle accepted in the New York Times, making him the youngest person ever at the time to do so. After high school, Natan interned with famed New York Times crossword editor Will Shortz and now writes bimonthly crosswords for the New Yorker.

Natan Last is a writer and immigration policy advocate. He writes bimonthly crosswords for The New Yorker. His essays, poetry, and academic research appear in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Drift, Los Angeles Review of Books, Hyperallergic, Narrative, and elsewhere. He has worked for the UN, the Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project, the International Rescue Committee, and as an advisor to the federal government on refugee resettlement. He lives in his native Brooklyn.

Natan Last Photo Credit: Saam Aghevli

Stefan Fatsis is the author of Unabridged: The Thrill of (and Threat to) the Modern Dictionary, published in October by Grove Atlantic, and three other books: the New YorkTimes bestseller Word Freak, about the world of competitive Scrabble; A Few Seconds of Panic, about life in the NFL; and Wild and Outside, about minor league baseball. In four decades as a journalist, Fatsis has written and talked for Slate, The Wall Street Journal, NPR, The New York Times, The Atlantic, ESPN, Sports Illustrated, and many other outlets. He lives in Washington, D.C.

Stefan Fastis Photo Credit: Cindy Fatsis

Books will be available for sale. A book signing will follow the conversation.

Day-of tickets, if available, will be sold for $15