Contact: Amy Sargent
Marketing and Communications Manager
Public Library Association
312-280-5024
asargent@ala.org

NEWS
For Immediate Release
January 26, 2010

CHICAGO - The Public Library Association (PLA) is announcing famed puzzle master, Will Shortz, as keynote speaker for PLA’s President’s Program and Awards Presentation at the American Library Association (ALA) Annual Conference in Washington, D.C. The program is part of the ALA Auditorium Speaker Series and will take place at 1 p.m. Sunday, June 27 at the Washington Convention Center.

Listeners to NPR’s “Weekend Sunday Edition” and readers of the New York Times are familiar with challenging style of Will Shortz, the world’s only academically accredited enigmatologist, a 14-letter word meaning “someone involved in the science of puzzles.”

Shortz sold his first puzzle when he was 14 and became a regular contributor to Dell puzzle publications at 16. He has since become puzzle master for NPR’s “Weekend Sunday Edition,” crossword editor for The New York Times, editor of Games magazine for 15 years and the founder and director of the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament. His puzzling skills have even taken him to Hollywood as the subject of a feature documentary film, “Wordplay,”in 2006 and as the riddle writer for “Batman Forever.”

There will be a book signing following the President’s Program. A selection of the more than 200 puzzle books Shortz has either authored or edited will be available for purchase onsite.