| 100% | JHUMPA | 6 | With 27-Across, Pulitzer Prize for Fiction winner who wrote 17-Across and 36-Across |
| 53% | EANNIEPROULX | 12 | 17-Across and 38-Across novelist who won the 1994 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for "The Shipping News" (3 wds.) |
| 49% | ANTHONYDOERR | 12 | "All the Light We Cannot See" Pulitzer winner who also wrote 17-Across, 36-Across, and 2021's "Cloud Cuckoo Land" (2 wds.) |
| 45% | ROBERTFROST | 11 | 17-Across and 26-Across writer who is the only person to win four Pulitzer Prizes for Poetry (2 wds.) |
| 42% | THORNTONWILDER | 14 | "Our Town" playwright who won Pulitzer Prizes for both Drama and Fiction: 2 wds. |
| 41% | ALAN | 4 | With 24-Across, Emmy winner for acting, writing and directing |
| 41% | UPDIKE | 6 | Two-time Pulitzer Prize for Fiction winner John |
| 41% | NORMANMAILER | 12 | "The Executioner's Song" novelist who won Pulitzer Prizes for both Fiction and General Nonfiction: 2 wds. |
| 40% | TARTT | 5 | Winner of the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for fiction |
| 40% | ANGLEOF | 7 | & 21A 1971 novel by Wallace Stegner; 1972 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction winner |
| 40% | THECOLOR | 8 | & 17A 1982 novel by Alice Walker; 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction winner |
| 40% | WILSON | 6 | August —, Pulitzer Prize for Drama winner for The Piano Lesson and Fences |
| 40% | LESS | 4 | 2018 winner of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction |
| 40% | UPTON | 5 | Sinclair who won a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction |
| 39% | JUSTINBIEBER | 12 | "Peaches" singer/songwriter who co-wrote and sings 36-Across with 17-Across (2 wds.) |
| 39% | JUNOT | 5 | Díaz who won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction |
| 39% | TARTT | 5 | Author who won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction |
| 39% | GREER | 5 | Andrew Sean ___, winner of the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction |
| 39% | ADAM | 4 | Novelist Johnson who won the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for fiction |
| 39% | JOHNSTEINBECK | 13 | Nobel Prize-winning writer born February 27, 1902, who wrote 18-Across and 44-Across (2 wds.) |
| 38% | JOSHUACOHEN | 11 | Author who won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction for “The Netanyahus” (May, 2022) |
| 38% | EDITH | 5 | Wharton who was the first woman to win a Pulitzer Prize for fiction |
| 38% | DONNATARTT | 10 | Mississippi novelist who won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2014 (2 wds.) |
| 37% | ANNE | 4 | Jayne ___ Phillips, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction for “Night Watch” (May, 2024) |
| 37% | ROBINSON | 8 | Marilynne —, author of 2004 novel Gilead; winner of the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction |
| 37% | NAN | 3 | Robertson who received a Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing in 1983 |
| 36% | UPDIKE | 6 | 1982 and 1991 Pulitzer winner for fiction |
| 36% | GRAU | 4 | Shirley Ann ___, winner of the 1965 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for "The Keepers of the House" |
| 36% | MICHAELCHABON | 13 | Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist who wrote "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay," 15-Across, and 47-Across (2 wds.) |