Crossworld News & Notes, April 2022
Settle in ... there's a lot this time.
Congratulations to Ada Nicolle, who has joined the editing team at AVCX+. Ada is a crossword constructor based in Toronto, Ontario. She runs the indie crossword venue Luckystreak Xwords+ on Patreon and is a regular contributor to the USA Today Crossword and Redstone Crosswords. When she's not constructing puzzles, she can be found performing comedy around Toronto. We asked Ada to share a few words: “I'm SUPER honoured to be a part of this team!! This is truly a dream and I'm so grateful that I get to work with a crossword venue that celebrates and uplifts the same indie spirit I do. :)” We totally agree.
Congratulations to the inaugural class for the New York Times Diverse Crossword Constructor Fellowship: Kanyin Ajayi, Helen Chen, Trey Mendez, Gustie Owens, and Ailee Yoshida. These five constructors, who were chosen from over 200 applicants, will work under the guidance of the NYT puzzle editing team for three months to create puzzles that reflect their lives and cultures. We look forward to the puzzles that are forged through this fellowship.
Since the last News & Notes, Rachel Simon (4/11), Emet Ozar (4/17), and Daniel Sheremeta (4/22) made their NYT debuts and Priyanka Sethy (4/11) made her USA Today debut. Congrats to everyone! Check out some of their other work: Priyanka’s “Across the Pond” for The Juggernaut, Emet’s “Not I” Universal Sunday (with Matthew Stock), and Rachel’s upcoming book, “Pickleball for All.”
We are very excited about The Lab, a new series from The New York Times that examines nontraditional puzzles that push the boundaries of puzzle making. Anytime the NYT uses their space to talk about indie crosswords, we’re happy. And we’re eagerly looking forward to their discussions to come. The inaugural feature examines Rebecca Falcon’s 2019 puzzle “I Die All The Time,” a Russian Doll homage that was the delight of Crossword Twitter when it dropped. If you take one thing from News and Notes today, we promise, you should go solve before reading the writeup. And don’t forget it’s a Russian Doll homage.
We’d like to point out another recent puzzle that works in a somewhat similar way, “Sound Tracks” by meatdaddy and Alex Boisvert.
The New Yorker crossword constructor Anna Schechtman is the subject of a recent BBC article, “The ‘real outlier’ in the crossword puzzle-making community.”
While we have shared These Puzzles Fund Abortion Too before, at the time of this writing, the fundraiser is 96% to its goal and needs a final push. TPFA2 is a pack of sixteen fantastic puzzles with reproductive and social justice content from an all-star lineup of constructors and editors to raise funds for the 2022 National Abortion Access Fund-A-Thon, building on a similar pack from last year. Led by Rachel Fabi, Claire Rimkus, and Brooke Husic, the fundraiser’s initial goal is to raise $35,000. All funds will be split equally among seven abortion funds. Donate here and your puzzle pack will be delivered by email in 1-3 days. A free companion puzzle, “Too Soon” and accompanying essay from Brooke is available at Just Gridding!.
Lots of news in books:
Adrienne Raphel discussed her book, “Thinking Inside the Box,” a “delightful, erudite, and immersive exploration of the crossword puzzle and its fascinating history” with Uri Bram of The Browser.
Dan Feyer and co. at The Browser have published an anthology of 52 cryptic crosswords for your solving pleasure with puzzles from constructors Nate Cardin, Sara Goodchild, Will Nediger, Paolo Pasco, Andrew J. Ries, and Stella Zawistowski.
Rebecca Falcon offers “Women In History: 300 Word Search Puzzles,” with puzzles themed around influential women and their accomplishments.
The Inkubator Team brings us “100 Audacious Puzzles by Women and Nonbinary Creators,” a collection in which “almost nothing is off-limits, except outdated crosswordese.” Available April 26.
“Toward a New Understanding of The Honeypot Puzzle Fragments” by Parker Higgins and Ross Trudeau is now available for purchase for folks who didn’t support the Kickstarter. The website also includes more Honeypot lore and extras like puzzle solutions and large print clues.
“The Puzzler” by A.J. Jacobs with contributions from Greg Pliska. One man’s quest to solve the most baffling puzzles ever, from crosswords to jigsaws to the meaning of life. Available April 26. A.J. will discuss his book with Will Shortz at 92nd Street Y on April 25. In-person and virtual tickets available now.
Hayley Gold’s “Letters to Margaret” is a graphic novel split in two parts and includes crosswords the reader solves alongside the characters, also now available after a successful Kickstarter. We’re excited to hear that the sequel is already in development with puzzles edited by Will Nediger.
This slipped our notice at the ACPT itself, but a follow up to this compilation of 60 past ACPT puzzles is available for preorder now. The first edition only contains one full set of tournament puzzles, but it’s nice to have some available in another way than from the ACPT website.
The AVCX Cryptic team is soliciting submissions. They invite constructors to submit five standalone clues for consideration. Submissions are open until May 15 (and possibly beyond). Full details here.
Stella Zawistowski, AVCX Cryptic Editor, is writing a series of short how-to guides in cryptic construction. The three entries so far are about grid design, seed selection, and choosing fill.
A handful of cryptic solving guides are also available. The one from The Browser is a favorite of ours because it has an interactive play-along feature.. See also the solving guides written by Francis Heaney for AVCX, and by Josh P. (aka Elderism) for his blog. Stella also has a fifteen-part series on her blog.
For the cryptic-curious or those just getting started, we recommend the beginner puzzles from The New Yorker, as well as those offered by bloggers Steve Mossberg and Joe Pasini.
A reminder that the third section of the Daily Crossword Links email collects all the cryptic and variety puzzles from the last day, and we’re happy that this section continues to grow as more constructors get into making cryptics. Some of our newest favorites are The Rackenfracker and Mental Judo.
We enjoyed reading and hearing everyone’s ACPT reviews and roundups! Here are a few highlights:
Rachel Fabi’s play-by-play diary for The New York Times
A rundown of the tournament with a special emphasis on “Word Nerd,” the student musical, article by Lucy Hodgman with Yale News
Ben Bass sits down with Ken Stern, Ben Zimmer, and Brendan Emmett Quigley, covering everything there is to cover about ACPTs past and present in a three-hour twitch stream
Brian Cimmet and Rachel Fabi go in-depth on episode 340 of Fill Me In
Thanks to Ben Zimmer, A and B finals are available on YouTube
And of course, our own Matt Gritzmacher with a delightful Twitter thread that I think many of us can relate to
More tweets/threads (some with spoilers!) from: Tyler, Sam, Paolo, Paolo, Chandi, Evan, Finn, Stella, Ben, Jeff, Amanda, Lila, and ACPT Wordle Champion Sid Sivakumar
Tournament Calendar:
STL Crossword Puzzle Tournament: June 18, St. Louis, MO (stay tuned!)
Boswords Summer Tournament: July 24, Boston, MA + virtual
Lollapuzzoola 2022: August 27, New York City (+ virtual?)