Trip Payne

Norman "Trip" Payne (August 7, 1968 – ) is an American cruciverbalist living in Florida who has published over 4,000 crosswords and variety puzzles.

Biography

Payne was born in Rock Hill, South Carolina, on August 7, 1968. He grew up in nearby Spartanburg and has been making puzzles professionally since publication in "Games" in November 1983. He attended Emory University in Atlanta, graduating with a degree in English in 1990. He interned at "Games" during his college summer vacations, where one of his pseudonyms was the anagram "Art Pipeny"; he was expected to go on to work there full-time after college, but two days before his graduation, the magazine folded temporarily. In 1990 he also served on the four-person American team that won the International Crossword Marathon.

In 1992 he was awarded the industry's "Wynner Award" (named for Arthur Wynne, the original creator of crosswords) for making one of the best crossword puzzles of the year.

After graduation, he moved to New York and was editor-in-chief of "Herald Tribune Crossword Puzzles Only", "Large Print Crosswords", and "Crosswords & Other Word Games magazines", 1990-1991. He moved back to Atlanta in 1991 to embark upon a full-time freelance puzzlemaking career. He is a former contributing editor to "Games", "Games World of Puzzles", and "Crossword" magazines, and a former proofreader for Creators Syndicate, "Dell Champion Crossword Puzzles", and other magazines.

In 1999, Payne was the third contestant ever to appear on the U.S. version of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire", and was the first to earn $32,000.

In late 2002 he moved to South Florida, where he now lives with his domestic partner Brian. Also in 2002, one of his crosswords was voted Puzzle of the Year by solvers of the "New York Times" crossword puzzle.

A member of the National Puzzlers' League since 1986, he served as vice president from 1991 to 1992 and hosted the group's annual convention in Atlanta in 1998. He created or co-created vast multi-puzzle team games for the 1991 and 1993 conventions.

In 2006, Payne was one of the crossword solvers profiled in the documentary "Wordplay". He has also appeared more briefly on a number of other TV shows, such as an episode of "Nightline" about the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament.

Payne is currently the "Word Expert" on the CBS game show "Million Dollar Password". He authors the wordoku puzzle in "TV Guide". He also occasionally writes puzzles for the "New York Times", the "New York Sun", and the "Wall Street Journal", and usually authors one or two puzzle books per year for Sterling Publishing.

He regularly attends several puzzle events every year, including the MIT Mystery Hunt, the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament (which he won in 1993, 1998, and 2004), the National Puzzlers' League convention, the "Miami Herald" Hunt, and Scrabble and pinball tournaments. He is ranked among the top Scrabble players in North America.

Publications

*"365 Mind-Challenging Cryptograms"
*"The Little Giant Encyclopedia of Word Puzzles" (co-author)
*"Crosswords to Strain Your Brain"
*"Pop Culture Crosswords"
*"Sit & Solve Scratch Movie Trivia"
*"Sit & Solve Crosswords" (volumes 1-3)
*"Crosswords for Kids" (volumes 1-8)

Payne has also been published in "New York Newsday"; the "Atlanta Journal-Constitution"; the "New Yorker"; "Dell Champion Crossword Puzzles"; Creators Syndicate; United Feature Syndicate; the Simon & Schuster crossword puzzle book series; the "Expert's Book of Crosswords"; "Masterpiece Crosswords"; "Random House Ultrahard Crosswords"; and "Random House Editor's Choice Crosswords". Small magazines and by-mail crossword clubs for more dedicated solvers include "Tough Puzzles", "Tough Cryptics", "Cryptics Monthly", Uptown Crossword Club, and Crossword Puzzles of the Month Club.

Magazines that have run specially commissioned puzzles from Payne include "Golf Magazine", "Manhattan File", "American Times", "Out", and many more; corporate clients have included IBM, NPR, Amtrak, MetLife, Dodge, Fox TV, Hanna-Barbera, Fruit of the Loom, and Kleenex.