February 14, 2019 - "The V-Word" - by Kelly Kizer Whitt

Difficulty ● ● ◐ ○ ○

Puzzle Notes

Loved ones of the Inkubator,

Today, February 14, is Valentine's Day, a day when we celebrate love in all its forms. Today is also V-Day, a global activist movement to end violence against all women and girls (cis, trans, and people with non-binary, non-conforming, and fluid identities who are targets of gender-based violence). V-Day was inspired by Eve Ensler's groundbreaking 1996 play, The Vagina Monologues, and every February, college campuses and community theater groups stage benefit performances to raise money and awareness for initiatives and organizations that work towards ending the violence. Here at the Inkubator, your team will be donating part of our fees for this puzzle to local women's shelters, and we hope you'll join us in doing what you can (whether that is donating money or supplies, volunteering, or amplifying the voices and work of activists) for national and global efforts to stop the violence, or for organizations in your community.

We are very pleased, on this day, to be publishing Kelly Kizer Whitt's somewhat challenging, celebratory, and appropriately themed puzzle.

Kelly Kizer Whitt's crosswords have been published in newspapers and magazines such as Country Woman, Reminisce, and Our Wisconsin. Her book Badger Brain Twisters: Wisconsin Trivia, Games, Puzzles and More! was published in 2007. She is also the author of three novels and a children's picture book about weather on the planets titled Solar System Forecast. Kelly has been writing about astronomy for two decades and can be found on Twitter at @Astronomommy.

When you're done solving, check out Diary of a Crossword Fiend for a write-up and discussion, every Friday after an Inkubator puzzle is published. For general updates, follow us on twitter at @InkubatorXWords, and we should have a fully functional website up soon. Thanks to all of our subscribers for your continuing support, feedback, and kindness!

Our next puzzle, an elegant themeless offering from Robyn Weintraub, will be published on February 28.

Happy solving!
Tracy and Laura