Local man wins award for crossword prowess

In a profession that banks on word play, calling the annual presentation of awards for the year’s best crossword puzzles and Constructor of the Year the “Orcas” is no doubt intentional. And while Valley resident Matt Gaffney has snagged many puzzle honors in years past, this time around he grabbed the top achievement at the Orcas by receiving the Margaret Farrar Award for Constructor of the Year.  To crossword puzzle lovers everywhere, Orca winners signify the cream of the crop in this competitive and specialized field.

The award is named for Margaret Farrar, a prominent and prolific American crossword puzzle editor at the New York Times in the early 20^th century. She established many of the rules and principles that govern crossword construction standards and conventions; her principles for designing and styling puzzles apply even to the present day. Many of her books are still in print.

Matt Gaffney knows what it’s like to be a ground-breaker in a field of long-standing tradition, and being named “Constructor of the Year” indicates his innovative puzzles and weekly crossword contest have hit a vein. With more than 4,000 puzzles and 15 years under his belt as a full-time constructor, Gaffney is probably best known for his challenging “metapuzzles.” His work has appeared in The New York Times,The Wall Street Journal, Slate, Politico, New York Magazine, Washingtonian and Billboard. He has also written puzzles for the Discovery and Travel Channels, the Major League Baseball website and a series for theWine Spectator. Matt is the author of 14 crossword puzzle books, several “Complete Idiot” guides including The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Crossword Puzzles and Word Games and Gridlock: Crossword Puzzles and the Mad Geniuses Who Create Them.

Matt’s expertise placed 11 of his puzzles in the top 25 crosswords in the running for Best Puzzles of 2012. Crossword columnist Sam Donaldson remarks on the popularity of Gaffney’s puzzles, “… no one out there is consistently making crosswords this inventive, this clever, or this fun.”  A fan comment echoes Donaldson’s sentiments, giving props to Gaffney’s skills in writing challenging puzzles:  “I’m glad to see Matt Gaffney celebrated with the Farrar Award. That, let’s say, uh, gentleman, has brought me more crossword frustration but also more puzzle joy than anyone else this year. And by joy I mean satisfying smugness when (ok, if) I finally unravel his tangled mess of clues. Bravo.”