| 100% | TERESE | 6 | Author Svoboda from Nebraska who penned this year's "Great American Desert" |
| 30% | MARIOPUZO | 9 | American author who penned The Godfather |
| 29% | WAY | 3 | This year's Nationals, who went all the ___ |
| 28% | JACKIEROBINSON | 14 | Baseball great and civil rights leader who broke Major League Baseball's color barrier on this day 76 years ago |
| 26% | DRSEUSS | 7 | Author who originally intended his pen name to rhyme with "voice," though Americans pronounced it differently |
| 24% | NED | 3 | American author ___ Vizzini who authored "It's Kind of a Funny Story" |
| 23% | ALICEMUNRO | 10 | Short-story author who announced her retirement from writing in 2013, the same year she won the Nobel Prize in Literature |
| 23% | GONNAMAKE | 9 | "___ It Through This Year," a song about New Year's by the Great Lake Swimmers: 2 wds. |
| 23% | ARI | 3 | American poet ___ Banias who authored "Anybody" |
| 23% | ITGIRL | 6 | This year's starlet |
| 23% | SRS | 3 | This year's grads |
| 23% | NESTGENERATION | 14 | This year's hatchlings? |
| 23% | RLSTINE | 7 | American author who wrote the children's series "Goosebumps" (3 wds.) |
| 23% | PAINE | 5 | Author Thomas ___ who wrote "The American Crisis" |
| 23% | ISME | 4 | This __, huge anthem from The Greatest Showman |
| 23% | ALCOTT | 6 | Author of "Jo's Boys" Louisa May ___ who wrote under the pen name A.M. Barnard |
| 23% | NEWCROP | 7 | This year's recruits, figuratively |
| 23% | BEN | 3 | ___ Kingsley, actor from "Gandhi" who was born on New Year's Eve |
| 22% | GRISHAM | 7 | Author who penned The Firm and The Client |
| 22% | SHELDON | 7 | American author Sidney ___ who wrote the "Midnight" series |
| 22% | POE | 3 | American author who created the detective fiction genre |
| 22% | SOS | 3 | "Rescue us from this desert island!" |
| 22% | OFF | 3 | Switch ___ from technology this next year |
| 22% | SIMONEBILES | 11 | Most decorated American gymnast who was Time's 2021 Athlete of the Year: 2 wds. |
| 22% | EBWHITE | 7 | American author who wrote the children's classic "Charlotte's Web" (3 wds.) |
| 22% | ALDA | 4 | Alan who hosted PBS's "Scientific American Frontiers" for 12 years |
| 22% | CON | 3 | Prisoner who's escaped from this puzzle's theme answers |
| 22% | STEPHENKING | 11 | Author who sometimes uses the pen name Richard Bachman |
| 22% | GRACEPALEY | 10 | Author and activist who wrote, “It is the poet’s responsibility to learn the truth from the powerless” |
| 22% | ROWLING | 7 | Best-selling author who was a runner-up for Time's 2007 Person of the Year |