On to Year 10!

year 9 is coming to an end, and year 10 is about to begin. hooray! the first rows garden of year 10 will hit subscriber inboxes on tuesday, september 3, 2024, and the first variety puzzle will go out on the monday after that. everything about the subscriptions will be the same in year 10 as it was in year 9 (pricing, number of puzzles, etc.). you can subscribe at this link. thanks to all of you who have been subscribers this year, and i hope to see all of you in year 10!

Diagramless crossword hints (Year 9 Variety Puzzle #21)

Outside the Box Puzzles Year 9 Variety puzzle #21 is a 17x20 diagramless crossword. Some solvers prefer to know what type of symmetry (if any) the grid has when solving a diagramless. Some prefer to know which square 1-across starts in. If you'd like either or both of those hints to get you started, here they are behind spoiler tags.

Symmetry hint: The grid has left-right mirror symmetry.

Starting square hint: 1-across starts in the fourth square in the top row.

Launch of Year 9!

with year 8 coming to an end, we now turn our eyes to year 9, which will begin in september, with the first rows garden hitting inboxes on tuesday, september 5, 2023 and the first variety puzzle on the following monday. everything about the subscriptions is the same in year 9 as it was in year 8 (pricing, number of puzzles, etc.). you can subscribe at this link. year 8 subscribers, be on the lookout for one more email each for the variety and rows garden email lists, containing links to download all of the year 8 puzzles as a bundle. after that, the google groups pages for year 8 will continue to exist, but i'll no longer be sending any email to those lists. on to year 9!

Welcome to Outside the Box Puzzles!

hi! this isn't exactly how i had planned to do this, but my old site abruptly stopped working at the worst possible time, so here we are.

i'm joon and i make puzzles. you probably know this already if you've found this site. i've been making crosswords since 2008, and i've had dozens of puzzles published in the usual places: new york times, los angeles times, wall street journal, fireball crosswords, american values club, chronicle of higher education, plus crossword tournaments like boswords and lollapuzzoola. since spring 2022, i've been writing sunday crosswords for the boston globe, my hometown paper, every other week.

in addition to standard crosswords, i love making variety crossword puzzles: they're often crossword-like, but with different formats that play around with the way words can cross either other. my favorite variety puzzle types include acrostics, marching bands, labyrinths, pathfinders, diagramless and vowelless crosswords. but my favorite type is rows gardens. since 2015, i've been writing a weekly rows garden puzzle and distributing it to subscribers by email. you can subscribe to year 8 now, if that's what you're here for.

other stuff about me:

• a few years ago, i wrote a book of trivia puzzles called triple decker trivia. if you enjoy trivia and "what's the connection?"-type puzzles (like the ones on the show only connect), this might be up your alley.
• in 2011, i won seven games as a contestant on the game show jeopardy!, and made it to the semifinals of that year's tournament of champions.
• i was part of the writing team for the 2022 MIT mystery hunt.
• i live in somerville, massachusetts with my wife and our three kids.