ANNIE DILLARD, THE WRITING LIFE — A work in progress quickly becomes feral. It reverts to a wild state overnight. ... If you skip a day, you are, quite rightly, afraid to open the door to its room. You enter... with bravura, holding a chair... and shouting "Simba!"
| A. | Determination made by a stylometrist | AUTHORSHIP |
| B. | Mollusk living in a whorl of its own | NAUTILUS |
| C. | Virginia shipbuilding center | NORFOLK |
| D. | Messenger of myth who came to Earth on a rainbow | IRIS |
| E. | A case of inflation (2 wds.) | EGOTRIP |
| F. | Service ID's (2 wds.) | DOGTAGS |
| G. | Chivalric knight a k a Wilfred | IVANHOE |
| H. | Small, yellow plumlike fruit of an evergreen | LOQUAT |
| I. | 19th-century privateer called "The Terror of the Gulf" | LAFITTE |
| J. | Song subject for un trovatore | AMORE |
| K. | Like the eye of a libertine | ROVING |
| L. | Comforter | DUVET |
| M. | Godzilla's perennial stomping grounds | TOKYO |
| N. | Game with boards and creases | HOCKEY |
| O. | Louise ___, author of "The Beet Queen" and "Love Medicine" | ERDRICH |
| P. | Interval of time during which an activity can or must take place | WINDOW |
| Q. | Slab on a mound in a stadium | RUBBER |
| R. | Wow | IMPRESS |
| S. | Trumpet fanfare; hunting call | TANTARA |
| T. | Admission of 1890 | IDAHO |
| U. | "I don't agree to it" (2 wds.) | NODICE |
| V. | Jay ___, Nick Carraway's neighbor in West Egg | GATSBY |
| W. | Bar figures | LAWYERS |
| X. | Confederacy espoused by Hiawatha | IROQUOIS |
| Y. | Italian dish prepared in a skillet | FRITTATA |
| Z. | Pairing of "love" and "move," or "mow" and "now" (2 wds.) | EYERHYME |