Yeah I went to a crossword tournament and that’s cool but did you know these are my friends and that’s what I care about

If you do, you’ll get a free copy of this mini meta pack I helped put together, with a bunch of my friends who are doing amazing work.

Puzzles are an art; art dies if left unnourished by human patronage. I know that sounds serious, but the people who care about the art take it that seriously.

I know nearly everyone who follows me is already subscribed, but—

There‘s a reason why my puzzle work these days is almost exclusively with AVCX. We all know someone in our lives who does mainstream puzzles, but doesn’t know that indies exist or how good they are. If you can, gift them an AVCX sub.

AVCX, the world’s finest puzzles and games service, and an independent media venture, has done some really cool stuff this year! A thread to brag (and to hype our mini subscription drive) …

I'm currently typesetting tonight's AVCX+ crossword, by hand, as I have for years. Other companies would call this an inefficiency and automate it. But we still do it this way because we like its human touch, and no corporation can force us otherwise.

I like this job. I'd like to keep doing it.

I was originally with Merchant but honestly Cranius makes a very compelling argument

impressing my date by solving the super mega in three hours while not paying attention to her

a cover by artist Pseudonym Jones depicting a transfem and a transmasc solving a puzzle, which reads "a trans person made your puzzle." the subtitle reads "trans puzzles in support of U.S. charities, edited by Ada Nicolle and Sara Cantor, cover art by Pseudonym Jones"

A TRANS PERSON MADE YOUR PUZZLE is LIVE !!!!

donate at least $10 USD to an American trans charity and receive 10 puzzles by trans constructors

edited by me and @cantorlope.bsky.social
beautiful cover art by @pseudonymjones.bsky.social
happy pride :)

tinyurl.com/transxwords

Such a fun experience to do the Crosstalk podcast with Daniel Grinberg, with so much owed to his thoughtful questions and background research. Also, he's a really good crossword constructor too (wish I'd remembered to say that out loud when we recorded this!)

To be clear, the main goal of this puzzle is to fund abortion. I'm so grateful to the @tpfa.bsky.social team for assembling this pack for that purpose. But they also worked hard to create a safe space for me to (somewhat indirectly) share a part of my lived experience through this puzzle. I 💜 them.

I've been pretty quiet in the puzzle community, partly because a lot of things have changed in my life. If you want to know about one of those things (which is consuming a lot of my mind and heart), solve "Breaking Free" from this pack. I can't talk about it here or now, but it's autobiographical.

snippet of the AVCX+ Trail Mix puzzle pdf

grid for the AVCX+ Trail Mix puzzle

Here's a Trail Mix puzzle I made — to show gratitude for @avcx.bsky.social solvers who helped all of us at AVCX reach our 2024 subscription drive goals! It's a contest meta puzzle with a prize up for grabs until Friday: avxwords.com/puzzles/1754/

Things are looking up 📈 #NYTXW

grids from "Fitting It All Together," a meta suite with variety mini puzzles

Donate to fund abortion, get outstanding crosswords + variety puzzles from amazing constructors. I'm honored and excited to share that #TPFA4 includes this meta suite of variety mini puzzles by me, titled "Fitting It All Together." Give generously and enjoy solving ❤️ www.abortionpuzzles.com

Psst… #NYTXW 🤫

A round logo depicting the words "these puzzle fund abortion" around a mini crossword grid with the number 4 written in blocks sits in front of a purple crossword grid.

✨These Puzzles Fund Abortion 4✨ is now available for presale! Donate to receive 20+ original crossword and variety word puzzles themed around social and reproductive justice.

All donations go to 5 amazing abortion funds doing vital work 💕

fund.nnaf.org/tpfa4

cc: @abortionfunds.bsky.social

Blank grid for the “Hearts and Arrows” puzzle

Excited to debut this new variety puzzle called “Hearts and Arrows”, with Valentine’s Day coming up! It’s like a Rows Garden with a little extra going on.

To solve, you can either sign up for an AVCX membership, or just buy this puzzle for a dollar here: avxwords.com/puzzles/1516/

Hey, that’s a really good idea! thanks for remembering this…

Crossword grid

"Meeting Friends" by Sid Sivakumar

I've got the Washington Post Sunday crossword today. This is my favorite theme I've ever put together — enjoy! www.washingtonpost.com/crossword-pu...

Big thanks to @evanbirnholz.bsky.social for masterful editing and for inspiring key elements of this puzzle (you'll know them when you see them).