Monday, March 13, 2023

Black Crossword: Mini by Juliana Pache. .pdf, online.
Crosshare Community: Daily Mini and Featured Puzzles.
The Daily Pennsylvanian: Mini by Tyler Kleim. .pdf, online.
Jeff’s Puzzles: Din-Din’s Ready by Jeff Linder. .puz, .pdf
Monday Fills: The Doors by Dave Murchie. .puz, .pdf, online.
Muggle Meta Mondays: Most Excellent! (Meta) by Capn Rick. .puz, .pdf.
Olio Grids: Dedicated to Tara Reid by Brian Callahan. .pdf, online.
YourPuzzleSource: Daily Puzzle (Midi) by Phil Fraas. .pdf, online.

Autostraddle: Autostraddle Mini — March 13, 2023 by Brooke Husic. .pdf, online.
Crossword Club: Daily Crossword: March 13, 2023 by Kate Chin Park. .pdf, online.
Lil AVC X: ($) ME@ Pies by Nijah Morris. Subscribe at link.
Planet Crossword: Pupper Themeless by Carly Schuna. Online.

The Atlantic Mini: by Paolo Pasco. .pdf, online.
Crosswords with Friends: Movie Monday by Robyn Weintraub. App Store | Google Play
Crosswords with Friends: Midi Puzzle by Todd McClary. App Store | Google Play
Crosswords with Friends: Mini Puzzle by Robyn Weintraub. App Store | Google Play
Daily Beast: Things Are Looking Up, Sun, Mar 12, 2023 by Matt Gaffney. .pdf, online.
Daily POP Crosswords: by Christina Iverson. App Store | Google Playonline.
Los Angeles Times: by Rebecca Goldstein. Online, pdf. Free Cruciverb account for .puz.
Los Angeles Times Mini: by Elizabeth Gorski. Online.
The Modern Crossword: Monday, March 13, 2023 by Amanda Rafkin. Online, .pdf.
New York Magazine: Computer-Constructed Crossword by Matt Gaffney. .pdf, online.
New York Sun: ($) Bang! by Gary Steinmehl. Reissues from 2003.
New York Times: ($) by Sam Koperwas and Jeff Chen. Online, .pdf, app.
New York Times Mini: by Joel Fagliano. Online, app.
The New Yorker: The Crossword: Monday, March 13, 2023 by Natan Last. .pdf, online.
Newsday: Under the Sea by Stella Zawistowski. Online, .pdfbackup online.
The Telegraph: Cross Atlantic by James Brydon. Online.
Universal: Out of the WoodS by David Steinberg. Online, pdf. .puz.
USA Today: Book Launch by Bruce Haight. Online, .pdf, app.
Vox: by Patrick Blindauer. .pdf, online.
The Wall Street Journal: Fashion Ensemble by Desiree Penner & Jeff Sinnock. Online, .pdf. .puz.
Washington Post Daily Mini Meta: by Andrew White & Pete Muller. Online, .pdf.

Redhead64: PUZZLE #430: Squeezed in the Middle 19 .pdf.
Steve’s Cryptic Crosswords: Puzzle 311 by Steve Townsend. Online.

Financial Times: FT Crossword: Number 17,356 by Bradman. .pdf.
The Globe and Mail: The Daily Cryptic Crossword. .pdf, online.
The Guardian: Cryptic crossword No 29,016 by Vulcan. .pdf, online.
The Hindu Cryptic: 13811 by Incognito. .pdf, online.
The Independent: Cryptic Crossword by Knut. .pdf, online.

Other American-style crosswords:

Reviews and Discussion at Diary of a Crossword Fiend | Boatload Puzzles/AARP | Crosshare | CrosswordsBackwards | Cruciverbalista (en español) | Dictionaries6 | Easy Crossword | FreeDailyCrosswords | GameLab | Hard Crossword | r/crossword | Squares.io | YourPuzzleSource | XWord-Muggles Meta Calendar

Other Cryptic/Variety crosswords:

A Frame Games | cf.kmbweb.de Links Library | Harper’s ($) | Lovatts | Magpie ($) | Mokelfish Links Library | MyCrossword | NPL | Panda Magazine ($) | Private Eye | PuzzleCrypt archives | Puzzling StackExchange | r/crosswords | Split Decisions | Sydney Morning Herald ($) | The Telegraph | The Times (UK) ($), includes The Listener

Late February Crossworld News & Notes

The Inkubator has announced it will cease operations at the end of 2023 in an email to subscribers:

After much careful thought, the Inkubator team has made the decision that 2023 will be our last year as a subscription service. We’ve had a wonderful four years with your support, surpassing our original goal of spending two years publishing new and emerging women and nonbinary constructors.

The Inkubator will continue as a community of constructors, and we’re excited for future directions and collaborations. In the meantime, we’re extending our current deadline for submissions until February 15, and we have an excellent slate of puzzles lined up for the next few weeks. We look forward to solving together with all of you this year.

We have a close relationship with the Inkubator team and offer our gratitude for both a great run and their leadership in the community. It has moved the needle, without a doubt.


A lovely piece from Liz Maynes-Aminzade at The New Yorker, “Will Shortz’s Life in Crosswords,” covers Will’s long career in puzzles. From all of us at DCL, echoing the sentiments we’ve heard from across the crossword community, we’re happy for Will for coming out publicly and finding love at 70.


ACPT is only five weeks away! We look forward to seeing many of you there. For those who can’t attend, the Virtual Tournament sponsored by Amuse Labs is an affordable way to participate and compete from afar. It includes live streams of all the tournament puzzles as well as other in-person events.


Congratulations to Paolo Pasco, winner of the Boswords Winter Wondersolve, and to second and third place finishers Will Nediger and Tyler Hinman. Congrats also to Frisco and Chauffeur, who won the Blizzard pairs division, Brian Lipinski, winner of the Flurry individual division, and Kristy and Wendy Gardner, winners of the Flurry pairs division.

Congratulations to Matthew Luter, whose puzzle was chosen through the open submission process to join the Boswords Spring Themeless League. The League begins with the preseason puzzle this Monday, February 27. A new practice puzzle from Chandi Deitmer and John Lieb is available for free.

In even more Boswords news, the annual summer tournament is now set for Sunday, July 23, with both in-person and virtual options.


These Puzzl3s Fund Abortion, the third annual TPFA pack organized by Rachel Fabi and co-edited by Rachel, Brooke Husic, and Claire Rimkus, is coming this spring in time for the 2023 NNAF Fund-a-Thon. We are excited about this year’s all-star constructor lineup and look forward to their puzzles.

We’re pleased to share that Grids for Kids has raised over $6,000 for youth charities so far, including The Trevor Project and No Kid Hungry. Written and edited by constructors who are also parents, it includes 17 standard crosswords with family-friendly themes, 2 cryptic puzzles, and 6 puzzles for younger solvers. Make a donation of at least $10 USD to receive the puzzles.


Since the last News & Notes, Nijah Morris (2/12), Kavin Pawittranon (2/12), Eric Rollfing (2/13), and Sean Ziebarth (2/15) made their NYT debuts. Congratulations to everyone!

On the February 10 episode, “Cut to Wabbit Season,” of the Crossnerds podcast with Brooke Husic and Rebecca Neipris, Brooke discusses the expansion of the Lil AVC X editing team, the importance of the constructor-editor relationship in cultivating a better solving experience, and (the lack of) gender diversity in The New York Times crossword.

Creating Crossword Puzzles” is a course taught by Brooke Husic and Natan Last in cooperation with Atlas Obscura. The next offering of the course begins March 28 with four weekly sessions over Zoom. The content is intended for very new constructors and those who are interested in how crosswords are made. Reduced price tickets are available. Puzzles constructed by previous classes are available for solving from Atlas Obscura: “Marvel, Extended Universe” and “Alpha and Omega.”

It’s been a while since we’ve mentioned Spread the Wordlist by Brooke Husic and Enrique Henestroza Anguiano, but now is a good time as the most recent quarterly update includes some structural changes to simplify the wordlist for constructors. It also surpassed 100,000 entries scored at 50+ for the first time. This is a fabulous free resource for new and veteran constructors alike, and we’re grateful to Brooke and Enrique for their continued work on it.

A Community of Crosswords” in the latest issue of Barnard Magazine comprises three short but delightful conversations with alums Rebecca Goldstein, Rebecca Gray, and Gustie Owens about their work in crosswords.

In the NYT Gameplay article “A Puzzle Maker Aims to Unite Black Communities in 25 Squares” by Deb Amlen, Juliana Pache speaks about her mission to inspire communities from across the Black diaspora to learn more about each other. Juliana publishes a free daily mini at Black Crossword, with plans to expand.

We may have mentioned it before, but it’s been a minute: Cross Your Heart by Laura Effinger-Dean is a free, open-source Android app for crossword solving, with lots of features such as downs-only mode, autocheck, pen/pencil toggle, scrambled puzzle support, and an undo button. Supports .puz files only.

The February issue of GAMES World of Puzzles features a Q&A with puzzlemaker Fred Piscop, who shares info about his new book, “The Healthy Brain Book of Word Puzzles.” The book includes Split Decisions (R) and plenty of other great puzzles.

We’ve added a few new sources to our daily list recently: Check out puzzles from Boston Magazine by Brendan Emmett Quigley, Barron’s, and The Hindu Cryptic. We’re also watching a handful of new-to-us college newspapers: Amherst, Rice, Columbia, Penn, and Michigan.

We’d like to remind everyone that the ability to download and print NYT variety and acrostic puzzles will be discontinued on February 26, and they’ll be removed from the archive beginning March 1—so solve, print, and save them while we still can.

We want to hear from you! If you have an idea about something you’d like to see us offer or have feedback about any of our features, please let us know.

Friday, 10 February 2023

BEQ: Going Too Far by Brendan Emmett Quigley. .puz, .pdf, online.
Black Crossword: Mini by Juliana Pache. .pdf, online.
crocswords: Valentine’s Day by Clev Cong. .pdf, online.
Crosshare Community: Daily Mini and Featured Puzzles.
The Daily Princetonian: Down Bad by Joah Macosko. Online.
The Daily Princetonian: Put It Together (Mini) by Bryan Zhang. Online.
Harvard Independent: Indy: NB by Becca Ackerman. .pdf, online.
Olio Grids: No Wrong Answers by Brian Callahan. .pdf, online.
YourPuzzleSource: Daily Puzzle (Midi) by Phil Fraas. .pdf, online.

Autostraddle: Autostraddle Mini — February 10, 2023 by Rachel Fabi. .pdf, online.
AVCX+: ($) “Have Your Unusual” (themeless) by Juliana Tringali Golden. Subscribe at link.
Crossword Club: Daily Crossword: February 10, 2023 by Kelsey Dixon. .pdf, online.
Crucinova: ($) Number 9… Number 9… by Michael Wiesenberg. Subscribe at link.
Fireball Newsflash: ($) Fireball Newsflash Crosswords #2, 2/10/23 by Peter Gordon. Subscribe at link.
Inkubator: ($) Remixes by Karen Lurie. Subscribe at link.

The Atlantic Mini: by Paolo Pasco. .pdf, online.
The Crosswords Club: ($) Shades of Gray by Patti Varol. Subscribe at link.
Crosswords with Friends: Sports Fan Friday by Doug Peterson. App Store | Google Play
Crosswords with Friends: Midi Puzzle by Donna S. Levin. App Store | Google Play
Crosswords with Friends: Mini Puzzle by Caitlin Reid. App Store | Google Play
Daily POP Crosswords: by Katie Hale. App Store | Google Playonline.
Los Angeles Times: by Sara Muchnick & Doug Peterson. Online, pdf. Free Cruciverb account for .puz.
Los Angeles Times Mini: by Elizabeth Gorski. Online.
The Modern Crossword: Friday, February 10, 2023 by David Steinberg. Online, .pdf.
New York Sun: ($) Themeless by Craig Kasper. Reissues from 2003.
New York Times: ($) by Kavin Pawittranon and Nijah Morris. Online, .pdf, app.
New York Times Mini: by Joel Fagliano. Online, app.
The New Yorker: The Crossword: Friday, February 10, 2023 by Adam Wagner. .pdf, online.
Newsday: Rare Additions by Stan Newman. Online, .pdfbackup online.
The Telegraph: Cross Atlantic by Jason Crampton. Online.
Universal: Nonvegetarian Sides by Nancy Serrano-Wu. Online, pdf. .puz.
USA Today: Blow Ya Mind by Kelsey Dixon. Online, .pdf, app.
Vox: by Andrew J. Ries. .pdf, online.
Vulture 10×10: The Speedster Puzzle by Stella Zawistowski. .pdf, online.
The Wall Street Journal: The State of American Cinema by Matt Gaffney. Online, .pdf. .puz.
Washington Examiner: ($?) SB In The News by Brendan Emmett Quigley. Online.
Washington Post Daily Mini Meta: by Andrew White & Pete Muller. Online, .pdf.
The Week: Sorry, We’re Closed by Matt Gaffney. .pdf.

A Crossword Rose: Breaking the Binary (acrostic) by Rose Sloan. .puz, online.
Crossword Nexus Blog: Going Beyond (Kaidoku) by Alex Boisvert .ipuz, .pdf, online.
Liari’s Cryptic Crosswords: Vampire Thriller by Liari. .pdf, online.
No-Feet McGee: ($) Rainbow Circle (Spiral) by No-Feet McGee. Subscribe at link.
Out Of Left Field: ($) Cryptic #150 by Joshua Kosman & Henri Picciotto. Patreon subscription.
Pixlate’s Puzzles: Under 21 by Pixlate & Frisco. .pdf, online.
Skald’s Puzzles: What? by Skald. .pdf, online.
TLMB: No Side Effects by The Void .pdf, online.

Financial Times: FT Weekend Magazine Crossword Number 626 by Aldhelm. .pdf.
Financial Times: FT Crossword: Number 17,329 by Steerpike. .pdf.
The Globe and Mail: The Daily Cryptic Crossword. .pdf, online.
The Guardian: Cryptic crossword No 28,990 by Brendan. .pdf, online.
The Independent: Cryptic Crossword by Phi. .pdf, online.

Other American-style crosswords:

Reviews and Discussion at Diary of a Crossword Fiend | Boatload Puzzles/AARP | Crosshare | CrosswordsBackwards | Cruciverbalista (en español) | Dictionaries6 | Easy Crossword | FreeDailyCrosswords | GameLab | Hard Crossword | r/crossword | Squares.io | YourPuzzleSource | XWord-Muggles Meta Calendar

Other Cryptic/Variety crosswords:

A Frame Games | cf.kmbweb.de Links Library | Harper’s ($) | Lovatts | Magpie ($) | Mokelfish Links Library | MyCrossword | NPL | Panda Magazine ($) | Private Eye | PuzzleCrypt archives | Puzzling StackExchange | r/crosswords | Split Decisions | Sydney Morning Herald ($) | The Telegraph | The Times (UK) ($), includes The Listener

Crossworld News and Notes, January 2023

Registration for ACPT is open now. We’re excited to see you there March 31-April 2! Also coming up: Boswords Winter Wondersolve, February 5 and St. Louis Crossword Tournament, March 4.


T. Campbell’s annual The Year In Crosswords covers the good, the bad, and the ugly in all of Crossworld in 2022. This long issue is a full who’s who and what’s what, including Wordle and its variants, changes in publications, fundraisers, tournaments, indie projects, software, AI, books and media, and more.

Sam Ezersky was profiled in Virginia Magazine, where he discussed the popularity of Spelling Bee during the pandemic and offers some of his best puzzling tips. The article is accompanied by a free series of short word puzzles inspired by Spelling Bee.

Constructor and magician David Kwong recently appeared on the podcast “Ologies” with host Alie Ward. He discussed Anigrams, AVCX, Diary of a Crossword Fiend, Wordle, cryptics, crosswords and brain health, and much more.


Congratulations to the 2023 Lil AVC X roster: Darby Ratliff, Dob Olino, Eric Mao, Jimmy Peniston, Kelly Nguyen Dickson, Lila Goldenberg, meatdaddy69420, Nancy Serrano-Wu, Nijah Morris, and Pravan Chakravarthy! We are so excited for the puzzles to come from this year’s bunch of up-and-coming constructors.

Congratulations to Nate Cardin, who has joined the editorial team at AVCX Cryptic!

Since the last News & Notes, Gustie Owens (12/4), Anthony J. Caruso (12/12), Julietta Gervase (12/13), John Martz (12/25), Josh Goodman (12/28), Seth Bisen-Hersh (1/2), Laura Breiman (1/4), Tom Bachant (1/4) made their NYT debuts. Congratulations to everyone!


We have been enjoying the latest offering from Puzzle Society: The Modern Crossword. Monday through Friday puzzles are midis of increasing size, Saturdays are themed puzzles by open submission, and Sundays are themeless puzzles by members of the editing team and invited constructors. The themes and content hold up to the puzzle’s moniker: the interface allows for alternate clues if solvers get stuck, and some clues and answers are accompanied by a constructor’s note.

We are also loving the new crosswords from Xtra, a LGBTQ2S+ online magazine. Puzzles are published the first of each month and are constructed by Ada Nicolle, who promises a younger, more inclusive vibe for the Xtra puzzles in this companion article.

The second crossword book from The Browser, “Cryptic Crosswords for Beginners” by Uri Bram & Dan Feyer is available now. They say “we break down these delightful puzzles into simple building blocks and have you solving cryptic grids before you know it!”


Fireball Crosswords begin this week and Fireball Newsflash Crosswords begin January 20, both by Peter Gordon. Subscriptions open now.

Now is also the time to renew your subscription to The Inkubator. A subscription is $30 for 36 puzzles: three puzzles a month all year long. The fifth year will feature creative themes from C.C. Burnikel, Chandi Deitmer, and Rebecca Goldstein; debuts from Max Schlenker and Darby Ratliff; themelesses from Robyn Weintraub and Wyna Liu; and many more.

AVCX and The Inkubator are open for submission. The New York Times has also reopened after a break.

Monday, December 12, 2022

Bewilderingly: That’s Weird, I Ended Up Back Where I Started by Will Nediger. .puz, .pdf, online.
Crosshare Community: Daily Mini and Featured Puzzles.
Jeff’s Puzzles: Themeless 43 by Jeff Linder. .puz, .pdf
Monday Fills: Themeless 114 by Dave Murchie. .puz, .pdf, online.
xwordswithbabka: Happy Hanukkah by Dan Schwartz. .puz, .pdf, online.

Atlas Obscura: Atlas Obscura Christmas by Brendan Emmett Quigley. .pdf, .puz, online.
Autostraddle: Autostraddle Mini — December 12, 2022 by Rachel Fabi. .pdf, online.
Crossword Club: Daily Crossword: December 12, 2022 by Kelsey Dixon. .pdf, online.
Planet Crossword: Beastly Themeless by Christina Iverson. Online.

The Atlantic Mini: by Paolo Pasco. .pdf, online.
Crosswords with Friends: by Doug Peterson. App Store | Google Play
Daily Beast: Wicked Cool, Mon, Dec 12, 2022 by Matt Gaffney. .pdf, online.
Daily POP Crosswords: by Janice Luttrell. App Store | Google Playonline.
Los Angeles Times: by David Tuffs. Online, pdf. Free Cruciverb account for .puz.
LA Times Mini: by Elizabeth Gorski. Online.
The Modern Crossword: by Erik Agard. Online.
New York Magazine: Just Desserts by Matt Gaffney. .pdf, online.
New York Sun: ($) It’s All Greek to Me by Craig Kasper. Reissues from 2003.
New York Times: ($) by Anthony J. Caruso and Zhouqin Burnikel. Online, .pdf, app.
New York Times Mini: by Christina Iverson. Online, app.
The New Yorker: The Crossword: Monday, December 12, 2022 by Natan Last. .pdf, online.
Newsday: About Time by Stan Newman. Online, .pdfbackup online.
The Telegraph: Cross Atlantic No. 22 by Chris Lancaster. Online.
Universal: Moving Stress by Micah Sommersmith. Online, pdf. .puz.
USA Today: Album Drop by Kavin Pawittranon & Nijah Morris. Online, .pdf, app.
Vox: by Patrick Blindauer. .pdf, online.
The Wall Street Journal: Things Are Looking Up by Wayne Bergman & Gary Otting. Online, .pdf. .puz.
Washington Post Daily Mini Meta: by Andrew White & Pete Muller. Online, .pdf.

Liari’s Cryptic Crosswords: Secret Sauce by Liari. .pdf, online.
Mental Playground: December 12 by MP. .pdf, online.
Redhead64: PUZZLE #417: Mini-Marching Bands 6 .pdf.
Some Variety: Advent 2022: #8 by Elgel online.
Steve’s Cryptic Crosswords: Puzzle 298 by Steve Townsend. Online.

Financial Times: FT Crossword: Number 17,275 by PETO. .pdf.
The Globe and Mail: The Daily Cryptic Crossword. .pdf, online.
The Guardian: Cryptic crossword No 28,938 by Nutmeg. .pdf, online.
The Independent: Cryptic Crossword by Italicus. .pdf, online.

Other American-style crosswords:

Reviews and Discussion at Diary of a Crossword Fiend | Boatload Puzzles/AARP | Crosshare | CrosswordsBackwards | Cruciverbalista (en español) | Dictionaries6 | Easy Crossword | FreeDailyCrosswords | GameLab | Hard Crossword | r/crossword | Squares.io | YourPuzzleSource | XWord-Muggles Meta Calendar

Other Cryptic/Variety crosswords:

A Frame Games | cf.kmbweb.de Links Library | Harper’s ($) | Lovatts | Magpie ($) | Mokelfish Links Library | MyCrossword | NPL | Panda Magazine ($) | Private Eye | PuzzleCrypt archives | Puzzling StackExchange | r/crosswords | Split Decisions | Sydney Morning Herald ($) | The Telegraph | The Times (UK) ($), includes The Listener

Crossworld News and Notes, October 2022

This is the first News & Notes since we left Substack entirely. We’ve made every effort to preserve the lists of folks who opted out of the daily emails while still receiving News & Notes, and vice versa, and appreciate your patience if you receive this in error – an unsubscribe link is at the bottom and will not affect the daily links distribution.


The Boswords Fall Themeless League is on! The puzzles and Twitch streams from September 26 and October 3 are available now. Late registrations are accepted; sign up here.

Cruciverbology is a new blog by constructor Elise Corbin. Elise has published with The Inkubator and Fireball Crosswords and made the only puzzle for FiveThirtyEight to date following a memorable indie debut just over two years ago — seriously, solve “Election Tampering” ASAP if it’s new to you. She calls her blog “Crosswords with a nerdy twist,” and the three puzzles available so far fit that description perfectly. We look forward to what more she will bring to the indie space.

Emma Oxford and Will Pfadenhauer of Pandora’s Blocks weekly meta crossword have started a podcast, “Outside the Blocks: A Puzzle Podcast.” In the first episode, released September 18, they review and explain a handful of meta puzzles from a variety of sources. They promise interviews with meta constructors in the future.

We’ve been listing weekly puzzles from Morning Brew for a bit now, but only recently caught up to their expanded offerings. Mary Tobler now oversees four puzzles a week: a Tuesday mini, a “more experimental” Thursday midi, the (typically) 15x you’ve seen us link for a bit, and a current events-minded Sunday 10x. Having passed 4 million subscribers earlier this year, Morning Brew creates puzzles for a wide range of solvers, and this new lineup is their latest initiative to encourage readers and puzzle fans, from daily devotees to first-timers, to engage with crosswords through innovative, fun formats. Mary talks more about her work in puzzles in the Morning Brew piece, “How puzzle master Mary Tobler makes a living playing games.”

A new puzzle is available at Planet Crossword, edited by Stella Zawistowski and Brooke Husic. A robust “About Us” section can be found here, but a particular highlight of this new outlet is that it uses software designed specifically for collaborative solving–on Zoom calls, on streams, or otherwise–filling the grid from correct answers typed into a chat. New puzzles are published each weekday at noon.

Writing for the Washington Post, Evan Birnholz published an interview with Jim Quinlan, crossword constructor and commenter, who recently retired from reviewing Evan’s puzzles at Diary of a Crossword Fiend after five years.

For cryptic fans, we learned recently of the Global Indian Crossword league 2022, an online worldwide cryptic crossword tournament, thanks to a news blurb about Erik Agard and Neville Fogarty’s places on the leaderboard. An in-person finale is scheduled for December 25 in Bangalore. Anyone is welcome to join and late registrations are accepted. Sign up here.

The New York Times Gameplay team has a new series called “Mini to Maestro,” in which they promise “Everyone can solve the New York Times Crossword.” Using progressively more difficult puzzles as examples and explaining solving strategies to use for each day of the week, they help teach solvers how to improve their skills. Each piece lists un-paywalled NYT crosswords chosen by members of the Gameplay team to practice the techniques explained.


Congratulations to Kate Chin Park, who has joined The New Yorker puzzles and games team as Assistant Editor. We’re big fans of her work at her own site, Crossword Club, and elsewhere, and excited to see what she brings to the TNY team.

Lil AVC X is seeking constructors and expert solvers who are interested in being first-time editors to join the team for 2023. Applications due October 21. Details here.

Since the last News & Notes, Helen Chen (9/22), David Karp (9/30), Sarah Sinclair (10/2), Jason Reich (10/5), and Ailee Yoshida made their NYT debuts; and Li Ding (9/19), Kavin Pawittranon (9/26), and Nijah Morris (9/26) made their USAT debuts! Congrats to everyone! Sarah has designed knitting patterns based on Wordle, the Spelling Bee, and the NYT Crossword. Helen’s puzzle is the second and Ailee’s the third to be published from the NYT Diverse Crossword Constructor Fellowship inaugural class, and Ailee is the youngest woman to have a crossword published in the New York Times.

Creating Crossword Puzzles” is a course taught by Brooke Husic and Natan Last in cooperation with Atlas Obscura. The second offering of the course begins October 11 (tonight!) with four weekly sessions over Zoom. The content is intended for very new constructors and those who are interested in how crosswords are made. Reduced price tickets are available.

In “How I Crossed Crosswords,” David Ding details his journey in writing a crossword puzzle, culminating with the publication of the September 27 Universal puzzle with Ross Trudeau. Aspiring constructors might appreciate the behind-the-scenes perspective of developing a puzzle with editors and working through the process with an experienced mentor.

Amuse Labs hosts a free monthly webinar for constructors. This month, they will discuss PuzzleMe features for creating and solving puzzles with a live Q&A session with developers. The webinar is scheduled for October 20 at 11am ET. Sign up here.


Have a news tip for us? An idea to pitch? A puzzle or puzzle site to share? Let us know!

Monday, September 26, 2022

Crosshare Community: Daily Mini and Featured Puzzles.
Jeff’s Puzzles: Garden-Variety Names by Jeff Linder. .puz, .pdf
Lexicon Devil: Skip Ahead to the End by Richard D. Allen. .puz, .pdf, online.
Monday Fills: Take a Number by Dave Murchie. .puz, .pdf, online.
Rossword Puzzles: Extended Family by Ben Bass & Ross Trudeau. .puz, .pdf, online.

Crossword Club: Daily Crossword: September 26, 2022 by Will Nediger. .pdf, online.
The Hub Crossword: ($) Picture Imperfect by Brendan Emmett Quigley. Patreon subscription.
Lil AVC X: ($) ¿Donde está la biblioteca? by Shannon Rapp. Subscribe at link.

The Atlantic Mini: by Paolo Pasco. .pdf, online.
Crosswords with Friends: by Todd McClary. App Store | Google Play
Daily Beast: Watch the Birdy by Matt Gaffney. .pdf, online.
Daily POP Crosswords: by Janice Luttrell. App Store | Google Playonline.
Los Angeles Times: by Emet Ozar. Online, pdf. Free Cruciverb account for .puz.
LA Times Mini: by Elizabeth Gorski. Online.
New York Magazine: Tool School by Matt Gaffney. .pdf, online.
New York Sun: ($) Tight Ballgame by Ed Early. Reissues from 2002.
New York Times: ($) by Margaret Seikel. Online, .pdf, .puz, app.
New York Times Mini: by Wyna Liu. Online, app.
The New Yorker: The Crossword by Natan Last. .pdf, online.
Newsday: Push the Buttons by Doug Peterson. Online, .pdfbackup online.
Universal: Shining Example by Guilherme Gilioli. Online, pdf. .puz.
USA Today: Virtual Zoo by Kavin Pawittranon & Nijah Morris. Online, .pdf, app.
Vox: by Patrick Blindauer. .pdf, online.
The Wall Street Journal: Ladies Rock! by Johanna Fenimore & Andrea Carla Michaels. Online, .pdf. .puz.
Washington Post Daily Mini Meta: by Andrew White & Pete Muller. Online, .pdf.

A Cleverly-Titled Logic Puzzle Blog: Sports Stats Stumpers by Grant Fikes .pdf
Go Away I’m Sleeping: Cryptic #36: Alive in Arizona by GAIS. Online, .pdf.
Redhead64: Triangle Tangle 4 .pdf.
Steve’s Cryptic Crosswords: Puzzle 287 by Ben Robinson Online.

Financial Times: FT Crossword: Number 17,209 by GAFF. .pdf.
The Globe and Mail: The Daily Cryptic Crossword. .pdf, online.
The Guardian: Cryptic crossword No 28,872 by Vulcan. .pdf, online.
The Independent: Cryptic Crossword by Italicus. .pdf, online.

Other American-style crosswords:

Reviews and Discussion at Diary of a Crossword Fiend | Boatload Puzzles/AARP | Crosshare | CrosswordsBackwards | Cruciverbalista (en español) | Dictionaries6 | Easy Crossword | FreeDailyCrosswords | GameLab | Hard Crossword | r/crossword | Squares.io | YourPuzzleSource | XWord-Muggles Meta Calendar

Other Cryptic/Variety crosswords:

A Frame Games | cf.kmbweb.de Links Library | Harper’s ($) | Lovatts | Magpie ($) | Mokelfish Links Library | MyCrossword | NPL | Panda Magazine ($) | Private Eye | PuzzleCrypt archives | Puzzling StackExchange | r/crosswords | Split Decisions | Sydney Morning Herald ($) | The Telegraph | The Times (UK) ($), includes The Listener