ORCAS
This week marked the 2025 ORCA Awards, an annual recognition of outstanding puzzles from the previous year organized by Rich Proulx. (ORCAS anagrams to OSCAR, and the awards are usually posted at a similar time of year as the Academy Awards).
Winners were announced on a Twitch stream hosted by Ben Bass and Ben Zimmer and are listed below, with links where the puzzle is still available. Commentary withheld if you haven’t already solved and would like to avoid spoilers:
Best Midi: “Happy Pi Day!,” by Adam Aaronson (Puzzmo, March 14)
Best Contest Crossword: “World Wide Web,” by Evan Birnholz (Washington Post, March 31) Solution and commentary
Best Easy Crossword: (Tie) Untitled, by Elliot Caroll (New York Times, December 9) and Untitled, by Brad Wiegmann (New York Times, June 19)
Best Variety Puzzle: “Both Sides Now,” by joon pahk (Outside the Box, January 29)
Best Tournament Crossword: “Upon Further Reflection Distortion,” by Hoang-Kim Vu (Lollapuzzola, August 24)
Best Clue: [Golden retriever who ends up with a chocolate lab?] for CHARLIE BUCKET, in Untitled, by Spencer Leach McDermott (New York Times, November 1)
Best Themed Crossword: “You’re Projecting,” by Elise Corbin (Cruciverbology, March 4)
Best Sunday-Sized Crossword: “Layered Up,” by Will Nediger (Bewilderingly, September 2)
Best Themeless Crossword: “themeless no. 32,” by crosstina aquafina and Erik Agard (Crosstina Aquafina, May 16)
themeless no. 32 was also named “Crossword of the Year” by virtue of receiving the highest vote total of any nominated puzzle in any category.
Constructor Of The Year: Christina Iverson
The full set of nominees (and additional links) can be found here. Congrats to all winners and nominees, and a hearty thank-you to Rich Proulx, who has stewarded the awards for a few years now, coordinating a nominating committee and the livestream.
Several members of the Daily Crossword Links staff participate in nominations, and we’re thrilled to see increasing indie puzzle recognition in both the winners and nominees. If you’re interested in helping out for next year’s awards, drop a line to theorcaawards@gmail.com
TOURNAMENTS
Congratulations to Ryan Judge, winner of the Boswords Winter Wondersolve, and finalists Matthew Luter and Glen Ryan.
Boswords Spring Themeless League begins with the preseason puzzle March 3. It’s not too late to register!
Boswords’ Summer Tournament will take place July 27 in person and online. The Fall Themeless League will take place in October and November.
The 47th ACPT is sold out, the waitlist is closed, and the hotel is fully booked. See you there, hopefully! To be announced: the constructor list, specifics for the Friday night games, and the awardee of the Merl Reagle MEmoRiaL Award for lifetime achievement in crossword construction, presented Saturday evening.
Westwords’ second event will take place in Berkeley CA on June 22. Registration is open now.
Lollapuzzoola 18 has been announced! Saturday, August 9 in New York City.
NEWS
The fifth edition of These Puzzles Fund Abortion, featuring 3 midi crosswords (2 standard, 1 cryptic), 14 American style crosswords, 3 cryptics, 2 variety puzzles and an acrostic, drops on March 1 and is available for pre-order now. Donations of any amount will get you the current pack, while donations of $50 or more will get you the current pack and all previous packs.
Rachel joined Brian Cimmet on the 2/18 episode of the Fill Me In podcast to share more about the project.
Crosshare, which provides easy-to-use in-browser tools for constructors to make and publish puzzles, is fundraising to support increasing costs and new features. Donations of any size will receive an eight-puzzle pack from some of the site’s most prominent constructors.
We’re excited to announce a new feature here at Daily Crossword Links. Under the leadership of Jess Rucks, we’ll soon begin running regular Constructor Spotlights, a conversational interview with a member of the crossword community. The daily links are our big-ticket item, but we also strive to recognize and promote all facets of the crossword community, and are eager to add this feature.
This expansion was made possible thanks to the generous response to our December fundraiser, but you don’t need to wait for a fundraiser to donate to DCL. Your support is gratefully appreciated at any time, and all donations since January 1 will receive the puzzle pack from our next fundraiser.
Lil AVCX announced their 2025 roster: Alex Rossell Hayes, Alisya Reza, Ben Wilson, Carina da Rosa, K.J. Sarr, Katie Hoody, and Terry Sun. Lil AVCX’s mentorship and development model is always fun to follow through the year and now boasts an ORCA winner among its alumni. We’re so excited to start solving this group’s midi puzzles.
Natan Last’s book “Across the Universe: The Past, Present, and Future of the Crossword Puzzle,” promising “an entertaining and eye-opening look at the history of the crossword, who constructs it, and why it matters as both a reflection of and influence on our culture,” is set for release on November 25. I have been impatiently waiting for this one for a while, and while it doesn’t quite appear to be ready for preorder yet, we’ll be sure to share the link when it does.
New Puzzles
It’s been a decently busy time for new additions to our daily list. New puzzles since our last edition:
Crossroads || Zerofiftyone (Ben Wilson) || Student Life (Independent newspaper of Washington University) || Elliot’s Puzzles || The New Dork Times (Cole Rush) || crosswords by alisya (Alisya Reza)
Quick Hitters
A reminder to stay tuned for more details about the second Crossword Con, set for April 4th in New York City to kick off the ACPT weekend || The New Yorker posted a video of an hour-long seminar on “The Art of the Crossword,” featuring Liz Maynes-Aminzade, Natan Last, and Robyn Weintraub || Natan will also teach a class of the same name over four online sessions later this spring || Universal and the Puzzle Society announced in an email to subscribers that in mid-April, the puzzles will move to GoComics.com. Subscribers will be automatically migrated to the new subscription.
If our daily list isn’t enough for you, a National Puzzlers’ League member has compiled a list of daily puzzles across many genres || Crosswordr Constructor-in-Residence Shana Chen published a guide to puzzle construction || Eric Berlin’s Puzzlesnacks Jamboree is a collection of over 50 puzzles for $10. Puzzlesnacks is a great introduction to variety puzzles in a bite-size format, and you’ll get a little of everything in this pack.