Author and speaker Terry Stickels has dedicated
his life to the pursuit of improving one's mental flexibility
and creative problem solving skills . . . and making it
fun. His books, calendars, card decks and newspaper columns
are filled with fun and challenging puzzles that stretch
the minds of even the best thinkers.
Stickels
is well known for his three internationally syndicated columns.
FRAME GAMES, seen in USA WEEKEND magazine, is read by over
48,000,000 people in 600 newspapers weekly. He concurrently
writes STICKELERS for King Features, appearing in over 200
newspapers daily. This column appears in such papers as
The Washington Post, The Chicago Sun – Times, The
Denver Post,and The Toronto Star. He also is
the featured puzzle columnist for The Guardian newspaper,
London’s largest newspaper.
He still finds time to create his yearly calendar as well
as books for both kids and adults. You may see his puzzles
on the back of Kellogg's Raisin Bran or on a Universal Studios
website featuring a movie such as A Beautiful
Mind, where he created the most famous IQ quiz in internet
history. This was followed by three successful books requested
by the high I.Q. society MENSA.
Not
only in demand in the publishing world, Stickels is sought
after as a public speaker. His keynote addresses are fast
paced, humorous looks at the ability (and sometimes lack
thereof) to think clearly. Using puzzles as mental warm-ups,
he immediately engages the audience into interactive fun
where he guides them to self-discovery of the power of their
minds. It doesn't take long before it becomes clear that
it isn't as difficult as one may have guessed to augment
those powers . . . and maybe have a little fun doing it.
Born
and raised in Omaha, Nebraska, Stickels created his first
puzzle at age 11. He and friend Tom Pyper, now a well known
attorney, were looking for something to do one summer after
their little league baseball games were continually rained
out. Tom's mother handed the boys a puzzle book and Stickels
was hooked on logical thinking and a lifelong pursuit of
having fun with puzzles.
He
attended the University of Nebraska at Omaha on a football
scholarship and graduated with a major in geography and
minor in natural sciences. It was while tutoring students
in math and physics at UNO that he saw the advantages of
using puzzles to assist the students in understanding certain
concepts in these disciplines. Puzzles offered the perfect
non-intimidating approach in aiding students to become better
thinkers.
After
years of creating puzzles, Stickels was asked to write a
weekly puzzle column for a twelve - newspaper syndicate
in Rochester, New York. After two years his puzzles caught
the eye of Sterling Publishing in New York and his first
book MINDSTRETCHING PUZZLES became an immediate hit
and is still selling well to this day. This book was followed
by ten more puzzle books all dedicated to having fun exploring
the powers of the mind. His popular FRAMEGAMES puzzles
are still featured on kids' television shows in Upstate
New York. New York Times' crossword editor Will Shortz's
uses some of Stickels' more mathematical puzzles on his
popular Weekend Edition radio show heard weekly on
National Public Radio.
Not
only are Stickels' books used for fun worldwide, such austere
bodies as THE NATIONAL COUNCIL OF TEACHERS OF MATHEMATICS
praise his books as important aids in assisting students
in learning how to think critically.
Stickels
currently lives and puzzles in Fort Worth, Texas, where
he is putting the finishing touches on two books to be released
later this year.
BOOKS
IN PRINT
