| BASHO | 17th-century Japanese poet best known for the book The Narrow Road to the Deep North (5) |
| COBBETT | William ____ is best known for the book Rural Rides |
| ATWOOD | Margaret, author who won her first Booker Prize in 2000 for the book The Blind Assassin (6) |
| FLANAGAN | Richard ___ author who won the Man Booker Prize in 2014 for The Narrow Road to the Deep North |
| YIYUN | Li who won the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction for "The Book of Goose," about a literary hoax concocted by two French teen-agers in the nineteen-fifties (April, 2023) |
| NINJA | 14th century Japanese martial arts assassin of the sort that attacked Shintaro in the black and whit |
| SPEED | Hurry back to the deep south (5) |
| BIDES | Waits for the book outside (5) |
| ATLAS | A last revision for the book (5) |
| ALBUM | Nearly everything US sponger had for the book (5) |
| ENTRY | No way out for the book-keeper! |
| ISSEI | Early 20th-century Japanese immigrant |
| ROAD | What Richard Flanagan's characters travelled to the Deep North in his 2014 prize winner? (6,4) |
| NARROW | What Richard Flanagan's characters travelled to the Deep North in his 2014 prize winner? (6,4) |
| SUBCIRCUIT | Bus going uphill with Councillor adopting one narrow road to host one minor route |
| MATSUOBASHO | Japanese poet (1644-94), the master of the haiku |
| SPEEDED | Hurried along to the Deep South, returning before the editor (7) |
| INDIGO | Tip of the iceberg doing harm to the deep blue (6) |
| PUDDNHEADWILSON | Mark Twain novel about a Northern lawyer who moves to the Deep South, featuring a New York college |
| SENDAK | Maurice, author and illustrator noted for the book Where The Wild Things Are (6) |
