Year: 2023

Two new books on the scene from the team at Vox: Pop Culture Crosswords and Mega Book of Mini Crosswords. Puzzles by Patrick Blindauer, Juliana Tringali Golden, Adesina O. Koiki, Will Nediger, and Andrew J. Ries.

Two new books from Eric Berlin’s Puzzlesnacks series are available now. Eric also recently shared a reflection on the puzzle formats he’s pioneered.

Puzzmo is a new website offering a daily midi crossword alongside other games and puzzles. Most daily puzzles are free; a paid subscription ($40 per year) grants access to the backlog and to bonus and beta puzzles. Crosswords are supplied and edited by Lil AVC X with Lil AVC X reruns on weekends and Puzzmo-exclusive midis on weekdays. A limited number of new players get access every day by completing a daily game that drops at a random time. Get yours here.

The Defector crossword has fully launched. The first couple puzzles of the weekly offerings by Ben Zimmer followed by Matthew Stock have impressed. Puzzles will run every Monday and most will be subscriber-exclusive. Submissions are open.

Emily Cox and Henry Rathvon’s output has slowed over the last year or so — they’ve stepped back from The Hub Crosswords, their cryptics no longer run in the Canadian National Post, and they stopped providing the New York Times Acrostics earlier this year. After rumblings here and there that they planned to create their own site, and in recent weeks CoxRathvon.com has popped up, containing the full collection of the pair’s monthly variety cryptics from the Wall Street Journal and Atlantic dating back forty-five years. It’s an utter treasure trove.

Correction: A reader has informed us that we have Lukas Karlsson to thank for working with Hex (as Cox and Rathvon are known when co-creating puzzles) and compiling this complete archive. Many thanks to Lukas!

While Evan Birnholz is on leave, a series of guest constructors are filling in at Washington Post. Evan shared the full list in a tweet. We’re happy that the guest constructors are providing interviews about their puzzles. Up first, Paolo Pasco.

Congratulations to the newly announced members of the 2024 Lil AVC X editing team: Amie Walker, Brian Callahan, Darby Ratliff, Jess Shulman, Matthew Luter, Shannon Rapp, Matthew Gritzmacher, and Sara Cantor.

The application for constructors to join the 2024 Lil AVC X roster is open through November 13.

Applications are also open through November 10 for the New York Times Diverse Crossword Constructor Fellowship.

Wyna Liu, writing for The New York Times, discusses her work on Connections. Christina Iverson, also writing for the Times, is soliciting questions to answer in her weekly Easy Mode newsletter. Submit your question here.

Dan Feyer appeared on the Good Morning America website this week where he shared some strategies for solving and discussed his appearance on Jeopardy!.

Los Angeles-area puzzlers may be interested in an evening with Spelling Bee Editor Sam Ezersky, hosted by Writers Bloc Presents. The program may become available on YouTube at a later date.

Congratulations to everyone who has made constructing debuts since our last issue!

Los Angeles Times: Ruth Bloomfield Margolin (10/6), Jenna LaFleur (10/7), Kate Luo (10/17), Josh Goodman (10/18), Seth Weitberg (10/19), Sala Wanetick (10/26), Emily Beigas (10/26), Glenn Cook (10/30), Catherine Lammersen (11/1), Matthew Luter (11/2), Daniel Okulitch (11/4), Michèle Govier (11/7)

USA Today: Robyn Weintraub (11/8)

New York Times: John Nagamichi Cho (10/12), Dominic Grillo (10/17), Kelly Morenus (10/21), John Donegan (10/26), Kenneth Cortes (10/30), Erik Piepenburg (10/31), Steve Weyer (11/1), Desirée Penner (11/6), Jeff Sinnock (11/6), Kevin Curry (11/7), Daniel Hrynick (11/8)