Kyra Wilson author page
4 puzzles by Kyra Wilson
with Constructor comments
See the 20 answer words debuted by Kyra Wilson.
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| H | S | T | M | A | C | O | X | O | E | G | O | |||
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| R | O | P | E | M | O | M | P | I | N | K | E | R | ||
| T | H | U | N | D | E | R | B | I | R | D | S | |||
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| P | R | I | S | M | A | L | I | T | C | O | I | N | ||
| G | A | M | E | S | E | T | E | E | X | E | S |
I'm so thrilled to be making my solo NYT debut (despite this being my fourth byline this year)! I love when my themes have multiple layers to them, so in addition to having the weather-related words at the beginning of this puzzle's theme entries, I also tried to make them appear in the order they would actually happen during a storm.
I'm not sure how noticeable that will actually be during the solve, but it was fun for me to have an additional constraint in choosing a theme set and laying out the grid. Regretfully, this meant I couldn't find a way to include any phrases that started with "rain," which I think is the most obvious omission, but I'm still happy with the way the theme worked out.
Since I originally submitted this puzzle, I've done a lot of work to edit my wordlist and make sure that the fill in my grid is inclusive and respectful to everyone. Unfortunately, that meant that this puzzle does contain some language (namely 12- and 28-down) which I would no longer feel comfortable including if I had written this puzzle today. I think these words make light of serious issues and that including them worsens the solving experience.
I will continue to work to make my puzzles as inclusive and respectful as possible in the future, and I'm very grateful to the constructors on Crossword Twitter and the Crosscord Discord channel who have spoken out about the importance of using inclusive language in puzzles.
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| O | N | E | A | L | L | P | A | P | E | R | ||||
| O | F | T | T | O | T | I | N | O | S | T | D | S | ||
| M | O | P | S | G | R | A | D | S | O | H | I | O | ||
| B | R | E | A | D | A | N | Y | A | U | R | A | L | ||
| O | M | E | G | A | M | O | M | F | R | I | E | N | D | |
| M | A | V | E | N | P | L | A | I | N | J | A | N | E | |
| B | L | E | S | S | A | N | T | E | A | T | E | R |
SOPHIA: While bored in an online class last spring, I texted Kyra to ask for a good themeless seed entry. She suggested 33-Down, and thus this puzzle was born. We locked in the bottom half of this puzzle early on, but the top half went through several iterations before this final submission.
As usual, it was a blast to collaborate with Kyra — she's incredibly talented at both grid construction and writing clever clues, and she even puts up with my insistence on adding extraneous Disney references to all of our puzzles.
KYRA: Now that our online classes are over, Sophia and I need to find a new time to work on our collabs together! I loved making this one with her, and we're excited to do more together soon.
| A | D | S | A | C | A | C | A | B | B | O | T | |||
| N | A | N | L | O | B | E | C | O | S | A | V | Y | ||
| O | T | O | M | A | N | S | L | I | T | E | B | E | R | |
| D | E | R | E | J | A | D | E | D | T | E | R | A | ||
| E | S | E | N | E | L | O | S | S | E | S | ||||
| T | A | P | O | U | T | P | I | N | T | A | ||||
| A | Y | C | A | R | A | M | B | A | S | N | A | R | F | |
| R | E | A | L | L | Y | L | S | D | G | A | L | |||
| G | A | P | A | L | E | O | A | X | A | C | A | |||
| U | S | E | M | E | I | D | I | O | M | A | T | I | C | |
| S | T | R | A | Y | C | O | M | M | O | N | ||||
| R | E | S | E | W | S | S | A | L | A | M | ||||
| A | T | I | C | O | N | N | O | W | D | O | G | O | ||
| A | R | A | I | G | N | S | R | E | F | U | G | E | S | |
| R | E | M | E | R | G | E | R | N | A | I | N | S | ||
| P | E | S | U | S | D | Y | T | D | A | T | Y |
KYRA: The idea for this puzzle was inspired by Neil Patrick Harris and David Steinberg's HARRY HOUDINI puzzle from 2017. I really liked the disappearing entry gimmick and wanted to figure out some way to do the reverse of it. After workshopping some ideas with Sophia, we ended up turning that into the doubling concept in today's puzzle.
At first we planned on not using a revealer to make the "appearances" more subtle, but having only four doubled entries of pretty short words meant there wasn't enough theme, and having five made the grid near impossible to fill. It felt like serendipity when we thought of DOUBLE DOWN as a revealer because it could fill out the theme and still not constrict our grid too much (although it did mean we had to switch the orientation of our theme answers!).
SOPHIA: I want to shout out Patrick Blindauer's DOUBLE FEATURE crossword as another inspiration — I've probably been thinking about it since 2013 due to its unique use of rebus squares. This puzzle took longer from conception to submission than any other puzzle Kyra and I have written together, so we're happy to see it run!
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| F | O | R | M | A | T | E | L | I | O | T | ||||
| D | E | B | U | N | K | E | D | B | I | E | N | |||
| E | L | A | T | E | I | D | I | G | G | P | A | |||
| G | E | N | Z | L | E | D | E | R | H | O | S | E | N | |
| A | C | T | E | S | W | E | E | T | T | R | E | A | T | |
| S | T | U | D | D | E | A | T | H | S | T | A | R | E |
KYRA: I'm very excited to have my first NYT crossword published! I met Sophia at Carleton College, and we've been constructing together for about a year and a half. Before we started, I liked doing crosswords but was not very good at them, so constructing had never even crossed my mind as an option. But Sophia encouraged me to go for it anyway, and (with a lot of help from her) I've made it to the big time! (And an added benefit to constructing is that I'm also a much better solver now too!)
Outside of crosswords, I'm a research assistant in a neurolinguistics lab in Abu Dhabi, and when I need a break from thinking about words, I like to bake, craft, and dance.
SOPHIA: I'm honored to be a part of Kyra's NYT debut. This puzzle was one of our first collaborations; when we began constructing it, we lived a five-minute walk from each other, when it was submitted, we lived in different states, and now at publication, we live 11 time zones apart! It's been great to stay connected via crossword construction even as our lives have physically moved apart.