Meet Julien Poirier, the Versatile Verbicrucist and Editor of Crossword Puzzles

2023-08-01 05:00:01

Julien Poirier is Jujubier for cruciverbists. After filling in crossword puzzles, he created them and made it his job. He is a verbicrucist and one of the few, today, to be both author and editor.

Julien Poirier, 35, is a verbicrucist. He creates the crossword puzzles, unlike the crossword puzzler who solves them. Verbicrucists are few in number today in France, most of the crossword puzzles being made by computers.

“I first created a grid ten years ago, on a whim. I did it regularly. I had fun. And then it remained a hobby for years. I had made a small fanzine which I had put in bars in Nantes. Three years ago, I decided to get more involved trying to spread it more widely. I played the game thoroughly and discovered the world of publishing.”

The regional structures of Jujubier • © France Télévisions/MStream

There followed a first magazine on the Loire-Atlantique, then Sarthe-Mayenne, Vendée and Maine-et-Loire. Julien does the markets, benefits from the relay of press points and certain bookstores and begins to live from his activity. Subsequently, he published a first issue “Les fléchés de Jujubier” special Pays de la Loire. The third came out at the end of 2022.

The arrows of Jujubier – Pays de la Loire special N°3 • © France Télévisions/MStream

” There are several solutions to create crossword puzzles. The most classic, that of game companies, is to use highly automated software that will generate grids, so sometimes it lacks a bit of soul or personality. And then there are the authors who cross in a more artisanal way. Me, I have a software help, but which is quite reduced, so I take the time to choose the words, cross them and above all, I take the time to define them with puns in particular. There are a lot of puns, double meanings, even humor, which requires a certain mechanical mind for the cruciverbist. An example: occupies a key position = CONCIERGE.”

Jujubier, a young verbicrucist in love with puns • © France Télévisions/MStream

For the creation of the grids, the verbicrucist begins with “the gallows”, namely the first horizontal word and the first vertical word. Another technical term: the “ankle”, when the letters do not intersect well, one can use pieces of words, or even words upside down. These are “words” that do not exist, but that we guess with the help of clever definitions such as “end of construction” = ER. Or: it’s the world upside down! = ETENALP.

I can complete a grid in four hours if I am efficient, knowing that it takes regarding sixty words per grid and that there are fifty grids in a magazine

Julien Poirier aka Jujubier

verbicrucist

Besides his wit and humor, Jujubier can also count on the support of Jacqueline. ” It occupies an important place, because we communicate a lot. I met him on a market in Nantes three years ago. Following that, she offered to help me, to do proofreading. She obviously likes crosswords very much. She tests all the grids, gives me her feedback. She can give me ideas. It is a great help for me“.

[Article initialement proposé en novembre 2022]

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