Richard Ford is an American novelist and short story author, born on February 16, 1944, known for his series of novels featuring the character Frank Bascombe.

Ford's first collection of short stories, Rock Springs, was published in 1987. In the United States, Ford received the 1996 Pulitzer Prize for his novel Independence Day. In Spain, he won the Princess of Asturias Award for 2016. In 2018, Ford received the Park Kyong-ni Prize, an international literary award from South Korea.

His novel Wildlife was adapted into a 2018 film of the same name, and in 2023 Ford published Be Mine, his fifth work of fiction chronicling the life of Frank Bascombe.