| 100% | WELTY | 5 | Pulitzer-winning writer of "The Optimist's Daughter" |
| 59% | VIETTHANHNGUYEN | 15 | Pulitzer-winning writer of “The Sympathizer” |
| 59% | JHUMPALAHIRI | 12 | Short-story writer whose "Interpreter of Maladies" won the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (2 wds.) |
| 57% | EUDORA | 6 | "The Optimist's Daughter" Pulitzer winner Welty |
| 57% | MCPHEE | 6 | Writer John who won a Pulitzer for "Annals of the Former World" |
| 56% | WELTY | 5 | Pulitzer winner for “The Optimist’s Daughter” |
| 53% | EUDORAWELTY | 11 | Mississippi-born author of "The Optimist's Daughter": 2 wds. |
| 53% | LESSING | 7 | Doris, prize-winning writer of The Golden Notebook |
| 53% | LORETTALYNN | 11 | "Coal Miner's Daughter" writer inducted into the Songwriter's Hall of Fame in 2008 (2 wds.) |
| 52% | WELTY | 5 | Eudora ___, Pulitzer-winning author for "The Optimist's Daughter" |
| 52% | WELTY | 5 | Pulitzer winner for "The Optimist's Daughter" |
| 52% | EUDORA | 6 | & 19D US author of 1972 novel The Optimist's Daughter |
| 52% | EUDORA | 6 | & 3D US author of 1972 novel The Optimist's Daughter |
| 52% | OLDS | 4 | Writer Sharon who won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry |
| 51% | ELIOT | 5 | Writer of the 1950 Tony-winning play "The Cocktail Party" |
| 51% | AGE | 3 | Edith Wharton's Pulitzer winning novel "The ___ of Innocence" |
| 50% | TINAFEY | 7 | Writer of the bestseller spelled out in this puzzle's circled squares |
| 50% | OURS | 4 | "One of ___" (Willa Cather novel that won the Pulitzer Prize) |
| 50% | WHARTON | 7 | Edith who won a Pulitzer for The Age of Innocence |
| 50% | 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.) |
| 50% | NICKELBOYS | 10 | Colson Whitehead's story of the Dozier School, that won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (with "The") |
| 49% | DRSEUSS | 7 | Writer of the children's book, "The Cat in the Hat": 2 wds. |
| 49% | BEATRIXPOTTER | 13 | Writer of the children's story, "The Tale of Tom Kitten": 2 wds. |
| 49% | RENT | 4 | One of 10 musicals to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama |
| 49% | RENT | 4 | Seventh of 10 musicals to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama |
| 49% | TRINIDAD | 8 | Birthplace of the writer V.S. Naipaul |
| 48% | LENIN | 5 | Writer of the "April Theses" |
| 48% | TACITUS | 7 | Writer of the ethnography "Germania" |
| 48% | QUILLPEN | 8 | Writer of the Magna Carta |