He was born and grew up in Detroit, Michigan. He attended Michigan State University (BA), the University of Michigan (MA), and the University of Wisconsin, from which he received his Ph.D. in 1970. He has been married to Marilyn since 1966, and they have three married children — Peter, Lani, and Andy.

Stephen is a contributing editor to GAMES magazine, which regularly publishes his games and puzzles. His puzzles also appear regularly in English Journal, a publication of the National Council of Teachers of English. He has also had puzzles in The New York Times Magazine, Readers' Digest, the Metro Monthly, The Jewish Journal, and the Buckeye Review. His first book, Language Lovers' Word Puzzles, appeared in 2002, and his second, Stanley Newman Presents Grid Play, in 2003.

With Kate Jones, he co-edits The Life of Games — How and Why We Play: An Exploratory Journal, that appears on this website. Kate's company, Kadon, has published one of his game systems, Flying Colors, which made the GAMES 100 list of best games for 2001.

Stephen has also published a scholarly article on Catch-22 in Twentieth Century Literature (October 1973), which also appears in Twentieth Century Interpretations of Catch-22 (2001) edited by Harold Bloom; a critique of Taboo: Why Black Athletes Dominate Sports and Why We're Afraid to Talk About It by Jon Entine in The World and I (January 2001); and an interpretation of Faulkner's short story, "A Rose for Emily," called "The Tabloidization of Emily," which appeared in the Spring 2002 issue of Journal X:   A Journal in Culture and Criticism.