During 1982, the magazine was terminated, and when "Sports Illustrated" did not hire Ford, he resumed writing fiction, composing "The Sportswriter", a novel about a failed novelist turned sportswriter who undergoes an emotional crisis after the death of his son. The novel became Ford's first well-known publication, named one of "Time" magazine's five best books of 1986 and a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. Ford followed the success immediately with "Rock Springs" (1987), a story collection mostly set in Montana, includes some of his most popular stories.