84+ Best Authors Trivia Questions & Answers

Question: Which literary legend dared to write a book as brain-bending as 'Ulysses'?

Answer: James Joyce

Question: Who gave us the cuddliest bear in literature—hint: he loves honey and has a red shirt?

Answer: A.A. Milne

Question: Which American author wrote about dreams, despair, and two bros in ‘Of Mice and Men’?

Answer: John Steinbeck

Question: Where did sci-fi legend Arthur C. Clarke chill out and stargaze in his final years?

Answer: Sri Lanka

Question: Peter Carey was born in which country that gave us kangaroos and Vegemite?

Answer: Australia

Question: What does the ‘J’ in J.K. Rowling stand for—spoiler: it’s not Jedi?

Answer: Joanne

Question: Harper Lee was a one-hit wonder (and what a hit!)—how many full novels did she publish?

Answer: 1

Question: What kind of writing takes Paul Theroux on epic real-life quests beyond the fiction realm?

Answer: Travel

Question: Which master of spooky stories gave us haunted hotels and creepy clowns in 'The Shining'?

Answer: Stephen King

Question: The Nobel Prize in Literature began in what year—aka the official start of literary bragging rights?

Answer: 1901

Question: Which bestselling author composed a musical album for kids called ‘Musica Animalia’? Plot twist: it's not Taylor Swift!

Answer: Dan Brown

Question: Who introduced the world to fangs and capes with the OG vampire tale ‘Dracula’?

Answer: Bram Stoker

Question: Which author forged Middle-earth and filled it with Hobbits, dragons, and epic quests?

Answer: J.R.R. Tolkien

Question: Who penned the mystical world of daemons and Dust in ‘His Dark Materials’?

Answer: Philip Pullman

Question: Howard Jacobson often explores which religion in his stories—hint: think menorahs and matzo?

Answer: Judaism

Question: Which author made the scarlet letter “A” more infamous than any high school grade?

Answer: Nathaniel Hawthorne

Question: Which chilly country did Vladimir Nabokov call home before turning heads with 'Lolita'?

Answer: Russia

Question: Who threw dazzling parties and tragic dreams into ‘The Great Gatsby’?

Answer: F. Scott Fitzgerald

Question: Who followed ‘The Golden Compass’ with 'The Subtle Knife' and 'The Amber Spyglass'?

Answer: Philip Pullman

Question: Which author made vampires sexy and sparkly before it was cool in 'Twilight'?

Answer: Stephanie Meyer

Question: Who made fashion journalism look fierce with 'The Devil Wears Prada'?

Answer: Lauren Weisberger

Question: Which author turned invisibility into a sci-fi nightmare before it became a superpower trope?

Answer: H.G. Wells

Question: Which U.S. state gave us Mark Twain—and riverboats, too?

Answer: Missouri

Question: Which English county is practically a character in Thomas Hardy’s novels?

Answer: Dorset

Question: Which teenager wrote ‘Eragon’—dragons, magic, and all—at just 15 years old?

Answer: Christopher Paolini

Question: Who wrote that steamy trilogy that had book clubs raising eyebrows—‘Fifty Shades of Grey’?

Answer: E. L. James

Question: Who invented the meticulous, mustachioed detective Hercule Poirot?

Answer: Agatha Christie

Question: Which dark poet gave us “The Raven”—and probably your favorite Halloween quote?

Answer: Edgar Allan Poe

Question: Who writes the spicy, fang-filled series ‘The Southern Vampire Mysteries’?

Answer: Charlaine Harris

Question: Which British author gave us love, guilt, and moral chaos in ‘Atonement’?

Answer: Ian McEwan

Question: Who created the suave spy we all secretly want to be—James Bond?

Answer: Ian Fleming

Question: Which author made the name ‘Lolita’ famous—and controversial—in 1955?

Answer: Vladimir Nabokov

Question: Where is Booker Prize-winner Kiran Desai originally from—hint: land of spices and storytelling?

Answer: India

Question: How old was Anita Brookner when she said, “Why not write a novel?” and totally nailed it?

Answer: 53

Question: Which allegorical farm tale gave us pigs, power plays, and Orwellian vibes?

Answer: George Orwell

Question: Who gave us a peachy adventure with giant insects and childhood wonder?

Answer: Roald Dahl

Question: Which author gave beauty a price in ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’?

Answer: Oscar Wilde

Question: Which genre makes Stephen King the literary king of nightmares?

Answer: Horror

Question: Which Swedish author created the badass hacker Lisbeth Salander in the ‘Millennium’ trilogy?

Answer: Stieg Larsson

Question: Which Scottish author brought us the brooding brilliance of Inspector John Rebus?

Answer: Ian Rankin

Question: Whose gravestone reads like a cryptic poem: "Cast a cold eye on life, on death. Horseman, pass by!"?

Answer: W. B. Yeats

Question: Oliver Goldsmith may sound English, but surprise—he was born in which country?

Answer: Republic of Ireland

Question: Which historical figure keeps popping up in Hilary Mantel's award-winning Tudor dramas?

Answer: Thomas Cromwell

Question: Who took a very long walk to freedom—and then wrote all about it?

Answer: Nelson Mandela

Question: Which romance novelist became literal royalty-in-law when her daughter married Princess Di’s dad?

Answer: Barbara Cartland

Question: How many Brontë sisters were there writing moody masterpieces in the moors? (Hint: it wasn’t just Emily!)

Answer: 3

Question: Which philosophical novelist’s debut dropped the literary mic with Under the Net?

Answer: Iris Murdoch

Question: H.H. Munro’s pen name sounds like a trendy sushi spot—what was it?

Answer: Saki

Question: Who built an entire galaxy of sci-fi known as the 'Culture' series?

Answer: Iain M. Banks

Question: Which fairy tale maestro hailed from Denmark and made us all cry with The Little Match Girl?

Answer: Danish

Question: Which Spanish airport shares its name with a poet who definitely never boarded a Ryanair flight?

Answer: Federico García Lorca

Question: What unusual material did David Ireland use (in fiction, not real life!) to craft a canoe?

Answer: Glass

Question: Which Inklings member didn’t get as famous as Tolkien or Lewis but wrote Descent into Hell anyway?

Answer: Charles Williams

Question: Who made us all believe a white suit and wit could change the world—under the name Mark Twain?

Answer: Samuel Langhorne Clemens

Question: Monica Ali's first big hit was named after which East London street that's now TikTok-famous for curry?

Answer: Brick Lane

Question: Which mysterious US author made murder at a college sound poetic in The Secret History?

Answer: Donna Tartt

Question: Who said, “Don’t waste your love on somebody who doesn’t value it”? (Shakes-probably-never-said-it, but we quote him anyway.)

Answer: William Shakespeare

Question: Which Italian writer literally wrote the book on political scheming—The Prince?

Answer: Niccolò Machiavelli

Question: Which lord of suspense started his literary empire with Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less?

Answer: Jeffrey Archer

Question: Arthur Sarsfield Ward chose a name that sounds like a supervillain—what was it?

Answer: Sax Rohmer

Question: Which author made you believe a tiger on a boat could be philosophical and action-packed at the same time?

Answer: Yann Martel

Question: Before writing hits, what was Willy Russell doing? (Hint: scissors were involved.)

Answer: Hairdresser

Question: Who put the “absurd” in Theatre of the Absurd and also made existential dread fashionable?

Answer: Albert Camus

Question: Which of these books didn't gallop out of Dick Francis's racing thrillers stable? (It’s the one with Gatsby.)

Answer: The Great Gatsby

Question: Which genre did Barbara Cartland rule over with more pink dresses and passion than a telenovela?

Answer: Romance

Question: Who wrote about a flying car way before Elon Musk could tweet about it?

Answer: Ian Fleming

Question: Who nabbed the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1971 and made political prose pulse with power?

Answer: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Question: Which Scottish writer turned spy thriller icon later got a fancy title: Baron Tweedsmuir?

Answer: John Buchan

Question: Which children’s author had an actor dad—Tony Van Bridge—proving storytelling runs in the fam?

Answer: Michael Morpurgo

Question: Which British author turned 'Money' and 'London Fields' into razor-sharp reads about modern madness?

Answer: Martin Amis

Question: Which suave spy-novel author was also the cousin of horror legend Christopher Lee? (No garlic needed.)

Answer: Ian Fleming

Question: Which author launched his career with Grimus in 1975—before causing global literary controversy later on?

Answer: Salman Rushdie

Question: Which British Prime Minister didn’t just win wars—he also won the Nobel Prize in Literature? (Talk about a résumé!)

Answer: Winston Churchill

Question: Who made dystopian fiction cool under the name George Orwell, even though his mum knew him as Eric?

Answer: Eric Arthur Blair

Question: Who first called Hemingway and friends "the lost generation"—long before it became an Instagram hashtag?

Answer: Gertrude Stein

Question: Which romantic poet tragically went from verse to hearse after a sailing accident in 1822?

Answer: Percy Bysshe Shelley

Question: What illness took out the entire Brontë squad before they could even write more sequels?

Answer: Tuberculosis

Question: What’s the real name behind the spy-tastic pen name John le Carré?

Answer: David Cornwell

Question: Which literary legend breezed through New York customs claiming, “I have nothing to declare but my genius”? (Big Leo energy.)

Answer: Oscar Wilde

Question: Which towel-loving, sci-fi genius is celebrated annually by nerds and hitchhikers alike on Towel Day?

Answer: Douglas Adams

Question: Who became the youngest-ever Nobel Literature winner—basically the literary Doogie Howser?

Answer: Rudyard Kipling

Question: What full name hides behind the classic initials G.K. in G.K. Chesterton? (Hint: not a rapper.)

Answer: Gilbert Keith

Question: Which brooding British novelist was married to Florence Dugdale and wrote tales darker than the weather?

Answer: Thomas Hardy

Question: Which queen of crime also had an alter ego named Barbara Vine—because one identity just wasn’t enough?

Answer: Ruth Rendell