With Card Trick, award-winning Nevada writer John L. Smith explores the terrain of the heart in a memorable assembly of seventeen love poems published for the first time. They are set not only in Tonopah, Mount Charleston, and other roadside oases familiar to readers of his popular Nevada column, but also in an eclectic array of locales that stretch from somewhere outside Washington, D.C., to ¿Coyote Pass, Elevation 3770¿ and a place called the ¿Shanghai Joy Desert Cafe,¿ where much more than chow mein is served to a spirit-weary traveler. In Smith¿s world, magic is found in the sacred desert, the pine-covered mountains, the garden of middle age, the winter birds and coyotes, and even ¿the great American discount store.¿ Card Trick marks another addition to his growing body of work that includes biography, journalism, and short fiction. Inducted into the Nevada Newspaper Hall of Fame in 2016, Smith writes commentary for The Nevada Independent and many other publications.

He chases stories from Las Vegas to Santa Fe and wherever the road leads him.