| 100% | LOTTERY | 7 | The __, creepy Shirley Jackson short story |
| 47% | LOTTERY | 7 | Admission slot raffle; Shirley Jackson story |
| 47% | AMONG | 5 | Shirley Jackson's "Life ___ the Savages" |
| 46% | SELFISH | 7 | Short story by Oscar Wilde: The __ Giant |
| 46% | IROBOT | 6 | Short story collection introducing the Three Laws |
| 46% | EERIE | 5 | Like many Shirley Jackson stories |
| 42% | MAGI | 4 | O. Henry's short story "The Gift of the ___" |
| 42% | OHENRY | 6 | Famed short story writer behind "The Gift of the Magi" |
| 41% | KAA | 3 | Python in 1894 Rudyard Kipling short story collection The Jungle Book |
| 41% | HORNUNG | 7 | E W —, author of 1899 short story collection The Amateur Cracksman |
| 41% | LEVI | 4 | Primo —, author of 1975 volume of short stories The Periodic Table |
| 41% | BRADBURY | 8 | Ray —, author whose volumes of short stories include The Illustrated Man |
| 40% | BALOO | 5 | Brown bear in 1894 Rudyard Kipling short story collection The Jungle Book |
| 40% | BAGHEERA | 8 | Black panther in 1894 Rudyard Kipling short story collection The Jungle Book |
| 40% | BOCCACCIO | 9 | Giovanni —, 14th-century Italian poet who authored short story collection The Decameron |
| 39% | BRAG | 4 | "The Big ___" (Dr. Seuss short story) |
| 39% | CATBIRD | 7 | "The ___ Seat" (James Thurber short story) |
| 38% | MALTESECAT | 10 | Kipling short story, with "The" |
| 38% | JACOBS | 6 | W W —, English author of 1902 short story collection The Lady of the Barge |
| 38% | ALICEMUNRO | 10 | Canadian short story author who won the 2013 Nobel Prize in Literature: 2 wds. |
| 38% | DANRHODES | 9 | Author of 2001 short story collection Don't Tell Me the Truth About Love |
| 38% | ALICE | 5 | With 7-Across, short story writer who won the 2013 Nobel Prize in Literature |
| 37% | GOGOL | 5 | Writer of the short story "The Overcoat" |
| 37% | ICEPALACE | 9 | F. Scott Fitzgerald short story, with "The" |
| 37% | TOBUILDAFIRE | 12 | Jack London short story about survival in the Yukon Territory, and the goal of this puzzle? |
| 37% | LOT | 3 | "___ No. 249," gothic horror short story by Arthur Conan Doyle that influenced the Mummy horror genre |
| 37% | THESUICIDE | 10 | & 10A Trilogy of Robert Louis Stevenson short stories first published in The London Magazine in 1878 |