[10] Through Weed/Flower, Ball published 40 books, including work by George Bowering, Victor Coleman, bpNichol, John Newlove, William Hawkins, and David McFadden.
[11] Through his magazines, he published work by Margaret Atwood, Bruce Cockburn, David Donnell, Pat Lowther, Daphne Marlatt, Gwendolyn MacEwen, Al Purdy, Joe Rosenblatt, and many others.
As a poet, Ball published approximately 50 books and chapbooks during his lifetime, as well as dozens of leaflets and pieces of small press ephemera.
[34] Frank Davey has written that Ball "is a poet of the minimal image; his poems, like the haiku, aim to combine the utmost economy with the sharpest possible visual clarity.
[42] In 2020, “The Nelson Ball Prize” was founded to honour “poetry of observation.”[43] To date, it has been won by Mark Truscott, Chantal Neveu (translated by Erin Moure), Pearl Pirie, and Cameron Anstee.