diff --git a/sorting.go b/sorting.go
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..6243d8bb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/sorting.go
@@ -0,0 +1,205 @@
+//go:build go1.18
+
+package parquet
+
+import (
+	"bytes"
+	"io"
+	"sort"
+)
+
+// SortingWriter is a type similar to GenericWriter but it ensures that rows
+// are sorted according to the sorting columns configured on the writer.
+//
+// The writer accumulates rows in an in-memory buffer which is sorted when it
+// reaches the target number of rows, then written to a temporary row group.
+// When the writer is flushed or closed, the temporary row groups are merged
+// into a row group in the output file, ensuring that rows remain sorted in the
+// final row group.
+//
+// Because row groups get encoded and compressed, they hold a lot less memory
+// than if all rows were retained in memory. Sorting then merging rows chunks
+// also tends to be a lot more efficient than sorting all rows in memory as it
+// results in better CPU cache utilization since sorting multi-megabyte arrays
+// causes a lot of cache misses since the data set cannot be held in CPU caches.
+type SortingWriter[T any] struct {
+	rows    *RowBuffer[T]
+	buffer  *bytes.Buffer
+	writer  *GenericWriter[T]
+	output  *GenericWriter[T]
+	maxRows int64
+	numRows int64
+	sorting []SortingColumn
+}
+
+// NewSortingWriter constructs a new sorting writer which writes a parquet file
+// where rows of each row group are ordered according to the sorting columns
+// configured on the writer.
+//
+// The sortRowCount argument defines the target number of rows that will be
+// sorted in memory before being written to temporary row groups. The greater
+// this value the more memory is needed to buffer rows in memory. Choosing a
+// value that is too small limits the maximum number of rows that can exist in
+// the output file since the writer cannot create more than 32K temporary row
+// groups to hold the sorted row chunks.
+func NewSortingWriter[T any](output io.Writer, sortRowCount int64, options ...WriterOption) *SortingWriter[T] {
+	config, err := NewWriterConfig(options...)
+	if err != nil {
+		panic(err)
+	}
+
+	// At this time the intermediary buffer where partial row groups are
+	// written is held in memory. This may prove impractical if the parquet
+	// file exceeds the amount of memory available to the application, we will
+	// revisit when we have a need to put this buffer on a different storage
+	// medium.
+	buffer := bytes.NewBuffer(nil)
+
+	return &SortingWriter[T]{
+		rows: NewRowBuffer[T](&RowGroupConfig{
+			Schema:         config.Schema,
+			SortingColumns: config.SortingColumns,
+		}),
+		buffer: buffer,
+		writer: NewGenericWriter[T](buffer, &WriterConfig{
+			CreatedBy:            config.CreatedBy,
+			ColumnPageBuffers:    config.ColumnPageBuffers,
+			ColumnIndexSizeLimit: config.ColumnIndexSizeLimit,
+			PageBufferSize:       config.PageBufferSize,
+			WriteBufferSize:      config.WriteBufferSize,
+			DataPageVersion:      config.DataPageVersion,
+			Schema:               config.Schema,
+			SortingColumns:       config.SortingColumns,
+			Compression:          config.Compression,
+		}),
+		output:  NewGenericWriter[T](output, config),
+		maxRows: sortRowCount,
+		sorting: config.SortingColumns,
+	}
+}
+
+func (w *SortingWriter[T]) Close() error {
+	if err := w.Flush(); err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
+	return w.output.Close()
+}
+
+func (w *SortingWriter[T]) Flush() error {
+	if err := w.sortAndWriteBufferedRows(); err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
+
+	if w.numRows == 0 {
+		return nil
+	}
+
+	defer func() {
+		w.buffer.Reset()
+		w.writer.Reset(w.buffer)
+		w.numRows = 0
+	}()
+
+	if err := w.writer.Close(); err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
+
+	f, err := OpenFile(bytes.NewReader(w.buffer.Bytes()), int64(w.buffer.Len()),
+		&FileConfig{
+			SkipPageIndex:    true,
+			SkipBloomFilters: true,
+			ReadBufferSize:   defaultReadBufferSize,
+		},
+	)
+	if err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
+
+	m, err := MergeRowGroups(f.RowGroups(),
+		&RowGroupConfig{
+			Schema:         w.Schema(),
+			SortingColumns: w.sorting,
+		},
+	)
+	if err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
+
+	if _, err := w.output.WriteRowGroup(m); err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
+
+	return w.output.Flush()
+}
+
+func (w *SortingWriter[T]) Reset(output io.Writer) {
+	w.rows.Reset()
+	w.buffer.Reset()
+	w.writer.Reset(w.buffer)
+	w.output.Reset(output)
+	w.numRows = 0
+}
+
+func (w *SortingWriter[T]) Write(rows []T) (int, error) {
+	return w.writeRows(len(rows), func(i, j int) (int, error) { return w.rows.Write(rows[i:j]) })
+}
+
+func (w *SortingWriter[T]) WriteRows(rows []Row) (int, error) {
+	return w.writeRows(len(rows), func(i, j int) (int, error) { return w.rows.WriteRows(rows[i:j]) })
+}
+
+func (w *SortingWriter[T]) writeRows(numRows int, writeRows func(i, j int) (int, error)) (int, error) {
+	wn := 0
+
+	for wn < numRows {
+		if w.rows.NumRows() >= w.maxRows {
+			if err := w.sortAndWriteBufferedRows(); err != nil {
+				return wn, err
+			}
+		}
+
+		n := int(w.maxRows - w.rows.NumRows())
+		n += wn
+		if n > numRows {
+			n = numRows
+		}
+
+		n, err := writeRows(wn, n)
+		wn += n
+
+		if err != nil {
+			return wn, err
+		}
+	}
+
+	return wn, nil
+}
+
+func (w *SortingWriter[T]) SetKeyValueMetadata(key, value string) {
+	w.output.SetKeyValueMetadata(key, value)
+}
+
+func (w *SortingWriter[T]) Schema() *Schema {
+	return w.output.Schema()
+}
+
+func (w *SortingWriter[T]) sortAndWriteBufferedRows() error {
+	if w.rows.Len() == 0 {
+		return nil
+	}
+
+	defer w.rows.Reset()
+	sort.Sort(w.rows)
+
+	n, err := w.writer.WriteRowGroup(w.rows)
+	if err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
+
+	if err := w.writer.Flush(); err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
+
+	w.numRows += n
+	return nil
+}
diff --git a/sorting_test.go b/sorting_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..20a46c1e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/sorting_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,55 @@
+//go:build go1.18
+
+package parquet_test
+
+import (
+	"bytes"
+	"math/rand"
+	"sort"
+	"testing"
+
+	"github.com/segmentio/parquet-go"
+)
+
+func TestSortingWriter(t *testing.T) {
+	type Row struct {
+		Value int32 `parquet:"value"`
+	}
+
+	rows := make([]Row, 1000)
+	for i := range rows {
+		rows[i].Value = int32(i)
+	}
+
+	prng := rand.New(rand.NewSource(0))
+	prng.Shuffle(len(rows), func(i, j int) {
+		rows[i], rows[j] = rows[j], rows[i]
+	})
+
+	buffer := bytes.NewBuffer(nil)
+	writer := parquet.NewSortingWriter[Row](buffer, 99,
+		parquet.SortingColumns(
+			parquet.Ascending("value"),
+		),
+	)
+
+	_, err := writer.Write(rows)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+
+	if err := writer.Close(); err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+
+	read, err := parquet.Read[Row](bytes.NewReader(buffer.Bytes()), int64(buffer.Len()))
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+
+	sort.Slice(rows, func(i, j int) bool {
+		return rows[i].Value < rows[j].Value
+	})
+
+	assertRowsEqual(t, rows, read)
+}
diff --git a/writer_go18.go b/writer_go18.go
index 2219cf20..82b42a29 100644
--- a/writer_go18.go
+++ b/writer_go18.go
@@ -64,6 +64,13 @@ type GenericWriter[T any] struct {
 //
 // If the option list may explicitly declare a schema, it must be compatible
 // with the schema generated from T.
+//
+// Sorting columns may be set on the writer to configure the generated row
+// groups metadata. However, rows are always written in the order they were
+// seen, no reordering is performed, the writer expects the application to
+// ensure proper correlation between the order of rows and the list of sorting
+// columns. See SortingWriter[T] for a writer which handles reordering rows
+// based on the configured sorting columns.
 func NewGenericWriter[T any](output io.Writer, options ...WriterOption) *GenericWriter[T] {
 	config, err := NewWriterConfig(options...)
 	if err != nil {