| MELVILLE | Surname of US writer who wrote Billy Budd (8) |
| SAFRAN | Jonathan ****** Foer, US writer who wrote the novel 'Everything Is Illuminated' (6) |
| TWAIN | Surname of US author, birth name Samuel Langhorne Clemens (5) |
| FENIMORE | James _ Cooper, US author who wrote The Last Of The Mohicans (8) |
| NEOPHYTE | Note rise of US writer they condemned as a mere beginner |
| SPILLANE | Surname of US crime writer Mickey (8) |
| WILLIAMS | The surname of US tennis players Venus and Serena (8) |
| STEPHENS | Real surname of US singer-songwriter and musician John Legend (8) |
| MORRISON | Toni, US author who won the 1993 Nobel Prize in Literature (8) |
| MICHAELCRICHTON | US author who wrote the science fiction thriller Jurassic Park (7,8) |
| ERNEST | ___ Hemingway, US author who wrote about his time on safari in Green Hills Of Africa (6) |
| MARKTWAIN | US author who wrote Roughing It (1872) |
| NATHANIEL | _ Hawthorne, US author who wrote The Scarlet Letter (9) |
| EUGENIDES | Jeffrey _, US author who wrote the 1993 novel The Virgin Suicides (9) |
| ELLIS | Bret Easton _, US author who wrote the 1991 novel American Psycho (5) |
| BORROUGHS | US author who wrote the 2002 memoir Running With Scissors, Augusten _ (9) |
| LEVIN | Ira ***** , US author who wrote the 1972 novel 'The Stepford Wives' (5) |
| RALPH | US author who wrote 1952's Invisible Man, _ Ellison (5) |
| RICE | US author who wrote 1994's Interview With The Vampire, Anne _ (4) |
| ASIMOV | Russian-born US author who wrote 2001: A Space Odyssey in 1968 (6) |
