Get your freak on
"Mr. Scrabble" visits Tree Town
by Davy Rothbart

Stefan Fatsis, a sports reporter for the Wall Street Journal, decided to investigate the strange world of competitive Scrabble, and got sucked in. His funny, riveting book, Word Freak: Heartbreak, Triumph, Genius, and Obsession in the World of Competitive Scrabble Players, chronicles his three-year odyssey from Scrabble duffer to legitimate pro. Fatsis will make a rare appearance in Michigan this month as part of the Neutral Zone’s 2nd Tuesday Author Series.

Ann Arbor Paper: When Word Freak came out, what was the reaction of the folks featured in the book?
Stefan Fatsis: Almost universal acceptance. I think there was an appreciation for legitimizing their world. There was mild disapproval from some quarters, discomfort with how glaringly honest I was about everyone’s personal lives. But [Scrabble champion] Joel Sherman rushed in and said, ‘Look, no one was described in the book more painfully than me—and all of it’s true!”

The funniest backlash was from some of the little old ladies (who are described as ‘the blue-hairs’ throughout the book). At one tournament I went to, a bunch of them showed up wearing blue wigs.

Yeah, I got some hate mail from them.

But really, the reaction from within the Scrabble community was overwhelmingly positive. People in ‘weird’ subcultures often feel like they’re not respected, they’re mocked and dismissed too easily. It was important to me as a Scrabble player and as a reporter to honor what they were—to portray them and me with all the intellectual, emotional, and physical tics that people who play this game with seriousness have. It’s easy to look at guys like Joel Sherman and think them strange, bizarre, asocial, reclusive and obsessive. It’s harder to understand why what they do is ultimately productive and worthwhile. I wanted to humanize them.

A2P: You mention in the book that at one point you stopped identifying yourself as a reporter when you met new opponents. That seemed like a crucial shift to me—it’s like the moment in that movie Deep Cover when Laurence Fishburne’s character realizes he is no longer an undercover cop acting as a drug dealer, he is simply a drug dealer.
SF: Yeah, there got to be a point where people just forgot I was there researching a book. Nobody questioned my presence. One day, Ron Tiekert [an elite player] came up to me after a long session and conveyed his respect; he said, ‘I’m glad you are one of us.’ That was incredibly meaningful to me. We all want to be accepted as a serious player in what we do.
Part of the beauty of it was just to go hide in this world, to hide in these words. It was so different from the rest of my life—no thirty-something single reporters allowed, no college friends, no yuppies, no talking about real estate, no nothing—nothing matters but seven tiles in their proper sequence.

A2P: How often do you play Scrabble now?
SF: I play, I do. I live in D.C. now and there’s a club; the top players, we tend to play each other. But I’m married now, I have a 2-year-old daughter; I doubt I’ll ever go back to it with the same intensity. I don’t play in tournaments much because I’m out of practice and I don’t want my rating to fall!.

A2P: Do you play Scrabble with your wife [All Things Considered host Melissa Block] or are you just way too much better than her at the game for it to be any fun?
SF: No, we like to play. She was six months pregnant and I dragged her to a tournament in Boston. She played well, too. At home, we play open book, you can check words in the dictionary. She’ll usually have a list of the acceptable two- and three-letter words laying out in front of her. Or she’ll just ask me if a word is good.

A2P: Is it true you proposed to her over Scrabble tiles?
SF: Yes. We’d been friends for a long time, it was pretty clear we’d get married. After the book came out in the U.K., we went over there for a U.K. book tour. Then we went to Paris, and one day, at a fancy place for lunch, I set up two racks of Scrabble tiles, arranged in alphagrams (alphabetical order). I-L-L-O-U-W-Y, and A-E-M-M-R-R-Y. Seven letters in ‘Will you,’ and seven letters in ‘Marry me.’ She said yes. A2P

Stefan Fatsis will read from Word Freak, answer audience questions, and give priceless Scrabble tips Tuesday, March 8 at 7 p.m., The Neutral Zone, 637 S. Main Street, (734) 214-9995.

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