| 100% | ADANO | 5 | "A Bell for ___" (Pulitzer-winning John Hersey novel set in an Italian town) |
| 45% | ADANO | 5 | Sicilian town in a John Hersey novel |
| 42% | ADANO | 5 | "A Bell for ___" (John Hersey novel) |
| 41% | UNDERTHEDOME | 12 | Stephen King novel set in an extremely isolated Maine town (3 wds.) |
| 41% | LONESOMEDOVE | 12 | 1986 Pulitzer-winning novel set in a cattle drive |
| 40% | MAIN | 4 | "___ Street" (Sinclair Lewis novel set in a small town in Minnesota) |
| 39% | THEMAGICIANS | 12 | Lev Grossman novel set in a school for aspiring sorcerers (2 wds.) |
| 39% | WRATH | 5 | "The Grapes of ___," novel by John Steinbeck, set in the Great Depression, that was a major reason for him winning the Nobel Prize |
| 38% | ADANO | 5 | Town in a 1945 Pulitzer-winning novel |
| 38% | SULA | 4 | 1973 novel set in "the Bottom," a neighborhood slated to be demolished for a golf course |
| 38% | ADANO | 5 | Town in a Hersey novel |
| 37% | THEE | 4 | For whom the bell tolls, in a John Donne poem |
| 37% | MCPHEE | 6 | John who won a Pulitzer for “Annals of the Former World” |
| 37% | FLATTORTILLA | 12 | John Steinbeck novel about an enchilada wrap eaten in a British apartment? |
| 36% | THEROAD | 7 | 2006 novel for which Cormac McCarthy won a Pulitzer Prize |
| 36% | TONI | 4 | Morrison who won a Pulitzer Prize for her novel "Beloved" |
| 36% | SNL | 3 | Show that won an Emmy for "Dick in a Box" |
| 36% | EDITHWHARTON | 12 | 13-Across and 25-Across writer who was the first woman to win a Pulitzer Prize in Literature, for her 1920 novel "The Age of Innocence" (2 wds.) |
| 36% | ADANO | 5 | John Hersey's "A Bell for ___" |
| 36% | ADANO | 5 | John Hersey’s “A Bell for ___” |
| 36% | ADANO | 5 | Setting for a 1944 Hersey novel |
| 36% | ADANO | 5 | Fictional town in a 1945 Pulitzer-winning novel |
| 36% | ADANO | 5 | Title town in a 1945 Pulitzer-winning novel |
| 36% | MENOTTI | 7 | Italian-American composer who won a Pulitzer Prize for "The Saint of Bleecker Street" |
| 36% | FOR | 3 | "A Bell ___ Adano" (Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by John Hersey) |
| 36% | MCPHEE | 6 | Writer John who won a Pulitzer for "Annals of the Former World" |
| 36% | CAHN | 4 | Sammy —, lyricist who won an Oscar for Three Coins in a Fountain |
| 35% | RYANS | 5 | "___ Daughter," 1970 film that won John Mills an Oscar for his role as a non-verbal character |
| 35% | PITT | 4 | Brad ___ who won an Academy Award for "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" |