The Sportswriter is a 1986 novel by Richard Ford, and the first of four books of fiction to feature the protagonist Frank Bascombe. In The Sportswriter, Bascombe is portrayed as a failed novelist turned sportswriter who undergoes an existential crisis following the death of his son.

It is an introspective novel about a sportswriter who has found himself at a crossroads in his life with no clear idea of which fork to take. Frank Bascombe lost his son to Reye's Syndrome. Frank fell into a sort of dream state after this event, leading him to a rash of behaviors that left his marriage in ruins. Now Frank is alone, lost within his own grief. The Sportswriter is a novel of one man's struggle to survive the mundane of daily life after tragedy that will leave its readers inspired.