Welcome to Outside the Box Puzzles!

hi! this isn't exactly how i had planned to do this, but my old site abruptly stopped working at the worst possible time, so here we are.

i'm joon and i make puzzles. you probably know this already if you've found this site. i've been making crosswords since 2008, and i've had dozens of puzzles published in the usual places: new york times, los angeles times, wall street journal, fireball crosswords, american values club, chronicle of higher education, plus crossword tournaments like boswords and lollapuzzoola. since spring 2022, i've been writing sunday crosswords for the boston globe, my hometown paper, every other week.

in addition to standard crosswords, i love making variety crossword puzzles: they're often crossword-like, but with different formats that play around with the way words can cross either other. my favorite variety puzzle types include acrostics, marching bands, labyrinths, pathfinders, diagramless and vowelless crosswords. but my favorite type is rows gardens. since 2015, i've been writing a weekly rows garden puzzle and distributing it to subscribers by email. you can subscribe to year 8 now, if that's what you're here for.

other stuff about me:

• a few years ago, i wrote a book of trivia puzzles called triple decker trivia. if you enjoy trivia and "what's the connection?"-type puzzles (like the ones on the show only connect), this might be up your alley.
• in 2011, i won seven games as a contestant on the game show jeopardy!, and made it to the semifinals of that year's tournament of champions.
• i was part of the writing team for the 2022 MIT mystery hunt.
• i live in somerville, massachusetts with my wife and our three kids.