| STEPHEN | - - - King, US author of horror fiction (7) |
| CTHULHU | Tentacle-faced monster of horror fiction |
| STEPHENKING | Giant of horror fiction |
| GHOSTWRITER | Unnamed author of horror stories (11) |
| MACBETH | Anguished king's US subject accepting award (7) |
| STINE | Most prolific author of children's horror fiction, per Guinness |
| KWJETER | US author of science fiction and horror novels who coined the term 'steampunk' in 1987 (1,1,5) |
| THOREAU | Henry David, US author of the 1849 essay Civil Disobedience (7) |
| HIAASEN | Carl ___, US author of novels Lucky You and Sick Puppy (7) |
| GRISHAM | John ___, US author of The Pelican Brief (7) |
| CORPUSCHRISTI | Police officer collecting King, US novelist heard in college (6,7) |
| GOOSEBUMPS | Series of children's horror fiction novels by U.S. author R. L. Stine (10) |
| SALEMSLOT | 1975 horror fiction novel by Stephen King, originally entitled Second Coming |
| POE | Early creator of Gothic horror fiction |
| DREISER | Theodore ___ (1871-1945), US author of Sister Carrie (1900) and An American Tragedy (1925) (7) |
| MARQUIS | US author of stage plays The Dark Hours and The Old Soak (7) |
| JOEHILL | US author of 2007 novel Heart-Shaped Box (3,4) |
| AYNRAND | (GKN) Russian-born US author of novels including The Fountainhead (1943) |
| ELLISON | Ralph ---, influential US author of Invisible Man |
| PYNCHON | US author of novels including V. (1963) |
