Crossworld News and Notes, August 2022
Big announcement from Lollapuzzoola and more!
We are very excited about the constructor lineup at Lollapuzzoola 2022! Registration is open now for the one-day event to be held on Saturday, August 27 concurrently in-person in New York City and online. Puzzles will also be available for purchase after the event.
Fans of Lollapuzzoolas past know that the tournament themes connecting each puzzle add another layer of color and elegance, with past tournaments themed around the Olympics, Back to School, and “time," among others. This year, the theme will be “Live, from New York!” as the tournament returns to in-person competition for the first time since 2019.
Tournament puzzles are by (in alphabetical order) Ella Dershowitz, Francis Heaney, Brooke Husic, Rafa Musa, Will Nediger, Paolo Pasco, and Pao Roy. There will also be a meta suite by Kate Chin Park, Kelsey Dixon, Shannon Rapp, Carly Schuna, and Sid Sivakumar; and another multi-puzzle suite by Foggy Brume. Lollapuzzoola Director is Brian Cimmet and Co-hosts are Brooke Husic and Sid Sivakumar. Read more about all of them here.
We’ll see you there!
Since the last News & Notes, Bill Pipal (7/28), Lance Enfinger (7/30), and Garrett Chalfin (8/1) made their NYT debuts, and May Huang (7/28) made her USAT debut! Congrats to everyone!
Stella Zawistowski (#crypticcluecontest) and Ryan Veeder both host cryptic cluing competitions on Twitter. Stella also does a #crypticclueaday solving challenge, with a very helpful #explanationfriday. George Ho of Loplop Crosswords has shared with us his running archive of Stella’s #crypticclueaday tweets.
1Across is a weekly cryptic clue writing competition open to everyone and hosted by community members.
Liam Runnalls is an Australian crossword compiler who runs a weekly contest on Twitter (#TSPclues) in which the winning clue appears in a crossword in The Saturday Paper.
Lily Geller maintains a Twitter thread where she posts #crypticoccasionally with explanations.
Crosshare hosts a monthly competition in which constructors submit 11x11 standard crosswords in response to a theme prompt. Prompts are announced in the Discord server and puzzles are hosted and shared via Crosshare.
For a few days last week, an article in the New Republic: Inside the Elite, Underpaid, and Weird World of Crossword Writers was the talk of multiple crossword communities, particularly for its dive into barriers to entry for aspiring constructors. Whether you agree or disagree, it’s worth a read and taking up some food for thought.
Amuse Labs has added another game to its lineup: Wordrow. “Inspired by the popular 5-letter word-based game, WordroW allows you to create interactive & thematic puzzles beyond just 5-letters.” Constructors can use this new mode to build and share Wordle-style puzzles. Several demo puzzles are available.
The Browser’s new feature, Browser Sevens, are free mini cryptic crosswords with seven clues each, released every two weeks and intended to offer a gentler on-ramp to cryptic solving as the format continues to blossom here. The first one, published August 7 is by Paolo Pasco.