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Mallory: I couldn't ask for a better NYT debut than this one, shared with Zhou. We've worked through dozens of absolutely inane unworkable ideas, and a few that have, through countless revisions, become publishable in reputable outlets. Not a bad success rate, when you have as much fun on the inane ones as we do. We came up with this idea in early 2024. Our first version, a Schrödinger puzzle, was submitted (and rejected) in July 2024. Fortunately for me, Zhou is persistent and clever, and we didn't give up. We resubmitted in April 2025 and, after some revisions, it was accepted in July and ran the following January.

The best thing to come from this, of course, is my friendship with Zhou. We have so much fun constructing and solving together, I couldn't ask for a better collaborator and friend.

Zhou: I'm overjoyed to be sharing this byline with Mal, a rockstar woman and amazing human. Women are underrepresented in crossword construction, and all-women collabs are particularly uncommon, so I'm delighted to add one tick for "all-women collabs" to the 2026 numbers. Hopefully, there will be many more of those ticks to come (and at least a few more by the two of us)! I'd also like to shout out Kate Chin Park, who was crucial in helping us refine this idea and get it to publication-worthy status. Thank you so much, Kate!! We couldn't have done it without you.

As for the puzzle itself — we spent a long time on several different versions of it, in an era when we were just "baby constructors", as Mal likes to say. (We're probably in our awkward teenage phase by now.) We have so many screenshots of previous grids, and it was fun to go back and see how far we've come since those early days. I'm super happy with how this puzzle turned out, and I'm particularly pleased to debut KOTEX (that corner was all Mal!), which we originally clued as [Brand that's only periodically relevant?] I thought that was hilarious, but unfortunately it didn't make the cut... Next time!

– puzzle by Mallory Montgomery and Zhou Zhang

Thrilled to be making my New York Times debut! The idea for this puzzle came to me, appropriately, while listening to rock music. The song title came first, and I eventually landed on the other three phrases after many rounds of trial and error. I was especially excited to discover a music-inspired theme since I spend much of my free time attending Boston-area concerts and singing with the Metropolitan Chorale in Brookline, Mass.

I've always been fascinated by words and puzzles. I've solved the New York Times Crossword daily since 2022, and I always keep a travel-size Bananagrams set in my bag in case of emergency. I took a stab at making crosswords for my college newspaper two years ago, and I quickly discovered that my love for puzzles extended to construction as well.

This puzzle would not be possible without my amazing mentor, Ian Livengood. His words of advice and encouragement were exactly what I needed as a first-time constructor. Thank you, Ian, for your endless support!

I'm delighted to be joining such a wonderful community of constructors. Everyone I've met has been so kind and encouraging. And now that I've gone through the process myself, I'm even more impressed with the effort that goes into each and every puzzle. Thanks for solving!

– puzzle by Nate Hall

Very excited to be making my New York Times debut! I've (technically) been a solver since I was around ten years old. On Sunday mornings my dad would leave a copy of that day's Times puzzle beside everyone's place at the breakfast table. The unstated expectation was that my siblings and I would at least give it a once-over in exchange for our French toast.

For today's puzzle, I remember that the revealer and theme set came to me in relatively quick succession. The only other theme answer contender that I recall seriously playing around with is the ever-fascinating LASCAUX CAVES. Gridding this one, however, was not nearly as smooth a process as theme development. The large amount of theme material left me with basically just a single viable option. Many thanks to the editorial team for allowing me to include an obscure New Wave band from New Zealand to make that option work. I was pretty psyched to tip my one Kiwi friend off to its inclusion.

Finally, just a few shout outs. Firstly, to Jeff Chen who I cold emailed in 2024 with a bunch of half-formed ideas. He has provided free mentorship ever since, and I'm a vastly better constructor for his generosity. And I know that I'm far from the only person for whom this is true. Secondly, to the Crosscord Discord community, which I only came across in the last year or so. There's just amazing levels of generosity, encouragement and flat-out talent present there that I'd be remiss not to crow about here while I have the chance.

– puzzle by Jonathan Raksin