Across the Universe

An entertaining and eye-opening look at the history of the crossword, who constructs it, and why it matters as both a reflection of and influence on our culture
From WORDLE to SPELLING BEE, we live in a time of word game mania. Crosswords, in particular, gained renewed popularity during the Covid-19 lockdown, when games became another kind of refuge. Today, 36 million Americans solve crosswords once a week or more, and nearly 23 million solve them daily. Yet, as longtimeNew Yorker crossword contributor Natan Last will tell you, the seemingly apolitical puzzle has never been more controversial or more interesting.
A surprisingly ubiquitous influence in the worlds of art, literature, and technology, as Last demonstrates, 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.
With a critical eye toward its history, Natan Last explores the debates about the future of the crossword and investigates those who are shaping the puzzle's next phase; ultimately, asking if the crossword can help us reshape the world. Across the Universe interrogates all the ways words - and the games we make using those words - change our culture while bringing us into the worlds of those pushing for the crosswords' much-needed evolution.

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 Drift, Los Angeles Review of Books, Hyperallergic, Narrative, and elsewhere. He has worked for the U.N., the Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project, the International Rescue Committee, and currently advises the federal government on refugee policy and technology. He lives in his native Brooklyn.