Abe and Rena Nathanson

Abe Nathanson and his daughter, Rena, along with his grandchildren Aaron and Ava invented Bananagrams while spending the summer of 2005 together at a beach house in Narragansett, Rhode Island. The whole Nathanson family is involved in the growing game business. Rena and her family reside in the U.K., and Abe lives in Providence, Rhode Island, where he runs the company’s headquarters.

Joe Edley, the only three-time National Scrabble Champion, is the author of The Official Scrabble Puzzle Book, Everything Scrabble, and Scrabble Puzzles Volumes 1–4, as well as Workman’s Scrabble Page-A-Day Calendar. Director of Clubs and Tournaments for the National Scrabble Association, he’s created thousands of word puzzles for The Scrabble News and writes the syndicated newspaper column “Scrabblegrams.” He lives with his family on Long Island, New York.