Ballard attended the Poetics Program at New College of California in San Francisco’s mission district where he worked with David Meltzer, Joanne Kyger, and Tom Clark.
In 2007 Ballard started the short-lived Lew Gallery with Portland artist Jeff Butler and curated such notable shows as "Artworks" by David Meltzer and "Some of the Worlds Diamonds: Pieces from Living Rooms," a collaboration with painters and poets from San Francisco to New York City.
His poems have appeared in 6x6, Blue Book, Boog City, Damn the Caesars, Drunken Boat, Joe Brainard's Magazine, Le Palais de Nuit, LIT, Mirage #4 Period(ical), The Recluse, Try!, Vanitas, and the anthologies Bay Poetics and Evidence of the Paranormal, among others.
[1] Ballard co-directs the Masters of Fine Arts in Writing Program at the University of San Francisco.
[2] Ballard's second full-length collection of poetry, Waifs and Strays, was nominated for a California Book Award.