Trip Payne

Trip Payne is an American professional puzzle maker. He is known by many as a three-time champion of the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament (ACPT). With his first victory in 1993, at the age of 24, Payne became the youngest champion ever in the tournament's history, a record he held until 2005.

Payne was born in Rock Hill, South Carolina. He grew up in nearby Spartanburg, attending Spartanburg High School, 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.

Payne 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 CROSSW RD Magazine's "Wynner Award" for creating the best unthemed crossword puzzle 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 2002, one of his crosswords was voted Puzzle of the Year by solvers of the New York Times crossword puzzle.

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