
Hi, thanks for stopping by. I'm an author, Contributing Writer at Sports Illustrated, and editor. I've also taught a variety of courses for the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.
My books include The Art of a Beautiful Game and One Shot at Forever, and I've written for The New York Times Magazine and the Los Angeles Times, among other publications. Eight of my stories have been optioned for film and seven have been reprinted in the Best American Sports Writing anthology. I was a finalist for a National Magazine Award, appeared in The Best American Magazine Writing, and won the 2018 Dan Jenkins Medal for Excellence in Sportswriting, given annually to the best feature story in the country.
In 2020, I led a Cal team partnering with the New York Times to cover COVID-19 and its effect in California. I'm currently writing features for SI, working on a book project, and running an LLC focused on narratives, which includes reporting and narrating a podcast for Audible and editing and annotating an anthology of basketball writing. In 2023, I began work on a nonfiction narrative book to be published by Simon & Schuster. My recent SI stories include one about the demise of post play and what it's like to watch something you love fade away.
You can reach me at chrisballard33 [at] Gmail
I'm on Twitter @Chris_Ballard33