THE ORCAS
Nominations for the 2025 ORCAS, an annual celebration of puzzles and constructors in the crossword community, have been announced and public voting is open now. The live broadcast hosted by Ben Bass and Ben Zimmer will take place February 24 at 9 pm ET on Twitch, with an all-star cast of presenters and guests. The ORCAS team is accepting new members to nominate puzzles in 2025; join here.
TOURNAMENT NEWS
All in-person registration for ACPT and the Stamford Marriott hotel block have sold out and the waitlist is closed. Virtual tournament options are still available. They’ve added a sign up form to stay on a mailing list for next year that says “We are working on a plan for 2026 that ensures a spot for anyone who wants to attend.” We are intrigued and hopeful for what this may mean!
The second Westwords Crossword Tournament has been announced: June 22 2025 in Berkeley, CA. Registration opens February 3.
Boswords’ Winter Wondersolve takes place tomorrow, February 2 beginning at 1:00 pm ET. It’s not too late to sign up for this online competition!
Boswords has also announced its Spring Themeless League lineup and they are accepting submissions for one open slot through February 15.
PUZZLES IN THE MEDIA
We missed including T Campbell’s annual The Year in Crosswords post in our last newsletter by mere hours. We’re not quite sure what T’s process is, but every year he produces a lengthy rundown of crossword news, highlights, lowlights, and minutiae from the previous twelve months. An enjoyable read, and perhaps there’s something interesting in there that you missed at the time.
Constructor Daniel Grinberg has started an interview podcast, “Crosstalk” which plans to dive into the intricacies of construction. The first episode features a conversation with Rafa Musa. More information and links to your preferred podcast platform at this Reddit post.
A heartwarming story of crosswords-as-art as written by Natan Last for Hyperallergic shares one artist’s homage to his grandmother and her crossword habit.
A piece from Abigail Popple for Maisonneuve discusses puzzles-as-politics and continues the conversation about what should be considered common knowledge with quotes from Ada Nicolle, Natan Last, Leonard Williams, and Will Nediger.
NEW PUZZLE SOURCES
Puzzles for Palestine 2, organized by Will Nediger and Adrian Johnson has officially launched! Through partnering with the Palestine Aid Society of America, any donation to their fundraiser (which funds water tanks, food supplies, and medical aid) gets you a pack of 22 puzzles from an all-star group of constructors.
Cryptic Crossweird is a new subscription service for modern indie cryptics. The editors promise a new midi cryptic puzzle twice a month with an updated style focusing on in-language fill and fodder, eschewing the more difficult and esoteric techniques of the past, making their puzzles more accessible to newcomers. The introductory puzzle pack includes puzzles from Will Nediger, Rachel Fabi, Joe Pasini, as well as a puzzle from the editing team themselves. Subscribe on Patreon. They are accepting submissions; guidelines here.
Hot on their heels comes The Gnomon from Andy Yingst, an indie subscription service exclusive to American variety style cryptic crosswords. Free previews coming this spring, with a full launch planned for June. They are accepting submissions; guidelines here.
The folks behind Minute Cryptic have announced a forthcoming weekly mini 7x cryptic puzzle. They are also taking single clue puzzle submissions; guidelines here.
If you noticed that Stella Zawistowski’s site rebranded from Tough As Nails to Inteltainment, fear not and/or celebrate! Tough themeless puzzles every other Wednesday will continue, but the name change reflects that Stella constructors other, less difficult, puzzles (as well as writes and edits trivia).
If you are able, please contribute to the GoFundMe in support of all-around crossword Good Guy Nate Cardin and his husband Ben who lost their home in the Altadena wildfire.
DEBUTS
Congratulations to everyone who has made print debuts so far in 2025:
New York Times: Adam Levav 1/13, Scott McMahon 1/18, Emily Sharp 1/19, Katie Byl 1/20, Landon Horton 1/22, Ernest Lim 1/24
Los Angeles Times: Jem Burch 1/9, Kareem Ayas 1/11
USA Today: Chloe Revery 1/10, Ed Sessa 1/14, Dan Kammann 2/1
Universal: Zachary Schiff 1/21