She has written and lectured extensively on the U.S.-Mexican borderlands, gender and violence, Latino culture, and narrative writing. Ballí is the co-author of No Place for Children: Voices from Juvenile Detention and her story “Calderon’s War: The gruesome legacy of Mexico” appeared in Harper’s in early 2012. She is a regular contributor to Texas Monthly, where her in-depth interview and story on Benjamin Sáenz was published in August 2013.