James Graham Ballard (15 November 1930 – 19 April 2009) was an English novelist, short-story writer, satirist, and essayist known for psychologically provocative works of fiction that explore the relations between human psychology, technology, sex, and mass media.

Ballard first became associated with New Wave science fiction for post-apocalyptic novels such as The Drowned World (1962). He later courted controversy with the short-story collection The Atrocity Exhibition (1970), which includes the 1968 story "Why I Want to Fuck Ronald Reagan", and later the novel Crash (1973), a story about car-crash fetishists.

In 1984, Ballard won broad critical recognition for the war novel Empire of the Sun, a semi-autobiographical story of the experiences of a British boy during the Japanese occupation of Shanghai. The novel was adapted into a film by Steven Spielberg in 1987. His journey from youth to mid-age is chronicled in The Kindness of Women (1991), and in the autobiography Miracles of Life (2008).

Some of Ballard's early novels have been adapted into films, including Crash (1996), directed by David Cronenberg, and High-Rise (2015), directed by Ben Wheatley.

The adjective Ballardian, defined as resembling or suggestive of the conditions described in Ballard's novels and stories, especially dystopian modernity, bleak man-made landscapes, and the psychological effects of technological, social, or environmental developments, stems from his distinct literary style.